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Why Orwell Matters

Spiked |  Sept. 17, 2022

This view of Orwell is not wrong, but it can miss something. For Orwell was concerned above all about the particular threat posed by totalitarianism to words and language. He was concerned about the threat it posed to our ability to think and speak freely and truthfully. About the threat it posed to our freedom.

He saw, clearly and vividly, that to lose control of words is to lose control of meaning. That is what frightened him about the totalitarianism of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia – these regimes wanted to control the very linguistic substance of thought itself.

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3 Comments on Why Orwell Matters

  1. http://www.sweetliberty.org/perspective/jewishpersecutionintro.htm
    JEWISH PERSECUTION
    TOOL of the International Zionists’ Plan for World Dominion

    ‘Newspeak’ and ‘doublethink’ are of particular interest when considering the subject of Jackie Patru’s eye-opening, thought-provoking and meticulously-researched summary study on “Jewish Persecution”.
    “However, under International Law, PEACEKEEPING IS NOT DEFINED AS WAR.”

    George Orwell’s book, 1984, explains the slight-of-hand (or slight-of-mind) maneuvers which effected this sudden shift in unconstitutional presidential power. It’s called NewSpeak which leads to NewThink, or more aptly NoThink. In a Logocracy, the perfection of the language is essential to the perfection of the system. As Syme, the language expert, told Winston Smith, in 1984:

    “The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.

    “. . . even the slogans will change. How could you have a slogan ‘freedom is slavery’ when even the concept of freedom has been abolished?”

    Eric Blair, using the pen name George Orwell, knew of which he wrote in his book, first published in 1949. He died immediately thereafter, by the way.

  2. Kudos to the article for posting comments and parts of Orwell’s greatest essay, “Politics and the English Language,” which I read in community college in the mid-70s. I will (as an author and otherwise) always defend the English language and the essay’s call for the continuation of freedom of speech, writing, thought, etc.

  3. Language, grammar, punctuation, spelling are as absolute as any aspect of mathematics. But the semitication of language interpretation has subjectivized such understanding making the dialectic completely possible.

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