Topics: American Exceptionalism, George Orwell, Media Criticism, Saudi Arabia, News
Despite what politicians say, understanding U.S. foreign policy is much more difficult than applying a black and white, good and evil, us versus them approach. To begin to comprehend the maze of conflicting interests involved and how the U.S. acts against its oft-stated ideals, one needs to lean on George Orwell’s definition of “doublethink,” or “the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
The central means of population control in Orwell’s “1984,” doublethink is also essential to the U.S. government and media’s ability to craft counterproductive foreign policies and narratives that go largely unquestioned by the mainstream media and American public.
Doublethink allows the U.S. government and media to apply its attention and ire selectively while maintaining that the U.S. supports democracy and opposes human rights abuses in the Middle East. It also facilitates the implementation of policies that blatantly contradict each other.
Glaring areas where doublethink has triumphed in U.S. foreign policy include American support for the draconian Saudi monarchy, the hardline Egyptian military dictatorship and the Iraqi regime allied closely with Iran. Doublethink is also conspicuously at play in U.S. condemnation of their enemies’ transgressions while ignoring its own as well as those of its allies. This is most clearly illustrated in U.S. support of Israel and condemnation of Russia.
Regarding Saudi Arabia, it is astounding that an America founded on the Enlightenment ideals of separation of church and state and individual liberty could blindly lend material and moral support to an Islamic monarchy noted for outdoing ISIS in beheadings. That the American media does not lambaste the U.S. government for honoring the princes of Saudi Arabia when they visit Washington speaks volumes about the influence that doublethink has on American society. The U.S. proclaims to support freedom while facilitating the worst aspects of medieval Saudi tyranny.
In Egypt’s case it would be hard to argue that the Obama administration does not agree with Winston Churchill’s claim that, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Although the U.S. government initially withheld aid in 2013 to the Egyptian military junta that overthrew the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood, it is currently supplying the repressive Sisi regime with $1.3 billion in weapons precisely to stifle democratic dissent. Employing doublethink, the U.S. government preaches liberal democracy but keeps dictatorship afloat in Egypt by turning a blind eye to the thousands killed under General Sisi.
