Language and Thought Control in Orwell’s America

When one controls language, one controls thought. Call it what you will–political correctness, PC, Newspeak–it’s really Orwellian thought control. Da Tool Guy goes over some of the finer points of Language Control in America in today’s Conservatism 101.

er cranky about political correctness, text-speak and various and sundry other abuses against the English language. I appreciate our British brethren are less than amused with some of the abuses we Americans have put the Queen’s English through over the years.

I decided the best way to explain it was through the lens of one of the great British authors, George Orwell, who understood entirely too well that if you control the language, you control thought.

ou see, I sat down to watch Orwell’s 1984 the other night. I hadn’t seen it in years and some masochistic impulse made me actually want to suffer through it again.

I say suffer through it, it’s quite well done. Excellent cinematography, well acted, overall a great movie from that standpoint. Just a bit on the disturbing side and not a lot of fun to watch. Rather like the book which I also haven’t read in years. One of those, “I’m glad I read it but I didn’t enjoy it,” types of novels.

I was struck, however, by a line early in the movie where one of main character Winston Smith’s lunch companions remarks “the destruction of words is a beautiful thing.”

This companion of Smith’s is tasked with helping in the creation of “Newspeak,” a language of sorts created by the government in order to control thought.

For instance within the book the “Ministry of Peace” concerns itself with war.

This seems funny until you realize that until after World War II we didn’t have a Department of Defense we had a War Department.

Like the “Ministry of Peace” the DoD fights wars.

As a writer, and one who has occasionally been accused of diarrhea of the keyboard, I’m not at all fond of the idea of destroying words — or changing their meaning.

But that’s precisely what the disease known as political correctness does.

In the name of “tolerance” or “inclusiveness” we have created a system in which certain things cannot be said.

We cannot have an honest discussion of race in this country. Anyone who tries is immediately labeled a racist.

A white person, for instance, cannot even try to discuss issues related to the destruction of the black family, or why so many more black men than white men are in prison. And if we cannot discuss them we most certainly cannot address them.

Moreover we have created more and more classes of hyphenated Americans. We are no longer Americans first. We are African-Americans, or Asian-Americans, or Hispanic-Americans.

As we more and more divide ourselves into smaller and smaller segments we are more and more alienated from each other. Language is a big part of how these divisions are created.

Language, and the manipulation of it, is a major tool of those who wish to also manipulate the populace.

We started with “global warming,” then when things stopped warming it was changed to “climate change,” then when it became clear that was a hoax as well it was changed yet again to “global climate disruption.”

Words have power. The press, of which I am obviously a member, knows this all too well. Behind a guise of impartiality, it is all too easy to manipulate a story with the words used. Especially when relying heavily on “anonymous sources.”

There’s a backlash beginning against political correctness in all its pernicious forms.

Unfortunately, this Orwellian doublespeak may very well be too deeply entrenched into our language to every completely eradicate.

Which, by the by, is what the far-left actually wants. Keep in mind the idea of “politically correct speech and thought” are Soviet ideas. They understand all too well that if you control the language you can control both the way people think and the debate.

We have to stop trying to avoid offending anyone and realize that the only way to put this nation back on track is to have a series of very difficult, very un-PC conversations.

We have to stop letting the progressives on the left continue to divide us into ever smaller groups while using the language to control debate and keep us from actually talking to each other.

It’s time for frank conversations about race, religion, sexual orientation and a number of other subjects — before the thought police make it impossible to have them.

by DaToolGuy

via Language and Thought Control in Orwell’s America | DBKP – Death By 1000 Papercuts – DBKP.