1984 Political Language
Relationship between Language, Politics, and the Truth
English 12
Steven Hamel
“Political language [...] is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” In George Orwell’s novel, 1984 and his essay “Politics and the English Language” there is a clear connection between politics, language, and expressing the truth. Politics aims to control people by altering and distorting language. George Orwell’s prescient view of society envisioned a future where government would suppress freedom through censorship and suppression of free thought. The control of language is the most dangerous weapon a government can possess, because it allows for the ability to dictate how people …show more content…
“[Political language] is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them [...] blurring the outline and covering up all the details” (“Politics” 167). In political writing there is no imagery, and the point isn’t directly accessible. The main point in this kind of writing is not readily available. The truth is hidden under layers upon layers meaningless ostale phrases so overused that they have lost their exact meaning. The purpose of this style of writing and speech is insincerity. Sentences are constructed so that the casual observer will see what they want to see; on closer observation there is no exact meaning or commitment to a specific idea of any sort, just a hollow meaningless phrase. 1984 embodies this perfectly when Winston sees a narrator on the telescreen elaborate, “Our forces in South India have won a glorious victory. I am authorised to say that the action we are now reporting may well bring the war within measurable distance of its end” (“1984” 28). This is the perfect example of political writing, because it justifies a purely political move with a very vague promise that seems great at a glance but holds no substance. The justification here is filled with enough vague qualifiers(“may well”) and prepositions(“within measurable distance of”) that it means nothing. The advantage of writing or speaking like this is
English 12
Steven Hamel
“Political language [...] is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” In George Orwell’s novel, 1984 and his essay “Politics and the English Language” there is a clear connection between politics, language, and expressing the truth. Politics aims to control people by altering and distorting language. George Orwell’s prescient view of society envisioned a future where government would suppress freedom through censorship and suppression of free thought. The control of language is the most dangerous weapon a government can possess, because it allows for the ability to dictate how people …show more content…
“[Political language] is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them [...] blurring the outline and covering up all the details” (“Politics” 167). In political writing there is no imagery, and the point isn’t directly accessible. The main point in this kind of writing is not readily available. The truth is hidden under layers upon layers meaningless ostale phrases so overused that they have lost their exact meaning. The purpose of this style of writing and speech is insincerity. Sentences are constructed so that the casual observer will see what they want to see; on closer observation there is no exact meaning or commitment to a specific idea of any sort, just a hollow meaningless phrase. 1984 embodies this perfectly when Winston sees a narrator on the telescreen elaborate, “Our forces in South India have won a glorious victory. I am authorised to say that the action we are now reporting may well bring the war within measurable distance of its end” (“1984” 28). This is the perfect example of political writing, because it justifies a purely political move with a very vague promise that seems great at a glance but holds no substance. The justification here is filled with enough vague qualifiers(“may well”) and prepositions(“within measurable distance of”) that it means nothing. The advantage of writing or speaking like this is