ABSTRACT

The ultimate modern literary depiction of authoritarianism and conformity is George Orwell's futuristic 1949 novel 1984. Albert E. Smith is ultimately captured, tortured, and brainwashed to correct his "deviation" from conformity. If many writers, ancient and modern, have warned pessimistically of the dangers of authoritarianism and conformity, many have also depicted heroic models of critical nonconformity and rebellion against authority. Psychological blocks like ethnocentrism and authoritarianism typically lead us toward a need to twist logic around to justify whatever actions and ideas support the authority or group we identify with. Rationalization is the word for this process of deceiving ourselves into believing what we want to believe or what benefits us personally, at the expense of what we would believe on rational grounds. In political disputes, opposing sides constantly resort to rationalization, compartmentalization, and their related fallacies to excuse their side's faults.