"The process (of doublethink) has to be conscious or it would not be carried out with sufficent precision. But it also has to be unconscious or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies - all this is indispendably necessary." - George Orwell - 1984.

How much of the information we hear is made up on the spot or is accepted at face value by the majority of people? It can't be overemphasized enough that people need to learn how to think as opposed to being told what to think.

It is a common misconception to think we are always in charge of what we think. What we hear and see has a major influence on how we percieve things. TV, radio, Inter-Net affects us whether the story we follow has any substance to it or not.