Down Is the New Up

Have you ever heard the phrase "black is the new pink?" Or that a certain style is "so last week"? Societal trends change so frequently and in such a fickle fashion.

Lets look at the phrase "black is the new pink." One day everyone could be wearing black, every single person, because it's what they are told is fashionable. Suddenly someone enters saying that pink is fashionable, that "black is the new pink." Next thing you know, everyone completely disposes of their pink wardrobe in favor of black out of fear of being deemed outdated or unfashionable. In an instant pink, a color once adored by all, becomes a disgusting object of hatred, replaced by black. Pink is not stylish. Black is.

If you've ever read 1984, you will be familiar with the concept of "doublethink": the process by which one essentially rewrites reality in their own mind. In this context, they hold two contradictory ideas to be true: the established idea that pink is stylish and the new idea that black is stylish. And through the process of doublethink they forget that pink is stylish, even adopting the belief that it's ugly, in favor of the new idea, and then using doublethink to forget that they ever used doublethink in the first place (a little tough to wrap your head around, I know).

Here's another example is from 1984. The country Oceania was at war with the country Eurasia. Therefore, as far as everyone in the party believed, Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. Suddenly, Oceania is at war with East Asia, not Eurasia. Therefore everyone believes that Oceania has always been at war with East Asia, and always at peace with Eurasia. They become enraged by all of their own posters against Eurasia, convincing themselves that East Asian spies had placed them there. Reality is rewritten in their minds, and truth ceases to be about objective facts and becomes the subjective whim of the party.

That is the danger of doublethink: it is reality control. Reality is defined by the party, who has complete control over its members minds. They control the present, and therefore control the past, therefore having control over the future.

I think that with "Down is the New Up" Radiohead is pointing out the use of doublethink in our society. Pink becomes the new black. Reality is changed. Down is the new up. We don't need you anymore, because you're outdated, you're so last week.

To convince yourself of such lies requires amputation, contortion, you must twist and turn your way to fit into this new fabricated reality. You perform a 180 flip-flop, you convince yourself that down is up, that 2 and 2 always make 5. Because that's what society says. Let society tell you what's stylish, let the government tell you what's real.

Shake out your pockets. Pass your money on down, which of course is up. My interpretation is that this section is referring to the flow of money going to the rich under the guise of going to the poor. After all, we live in topsy-turvy town.

And anyone who disagrees, anyone who clings to their objective reality is a bastard, crawling away. An outcast who sits down and stands up, not the other way around.