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If you have not read Modern Double-Think which is the first part of this article please click here.
As reffered to in my earlier article Orwell used two methods in particular in his book in order to control society. I just gave two dramatic examples of double think, and now its time to cover newspeak. In "1984", newspeak was the language that the government deemed appropriate for use in all forms of business and education. The primary focus of this was to limit how much people think.
You see, how much we are able to think is directly related to how many different words we know, and how well we can construct our own thoughts. A sentence is than a complete thought translated into a solid enough form to be clearly stated, and grasped. So the power of words is absolutely tremendous and amazing. By elimninating the distinctions between opposites (particularly in regard to freedom, rebellion, authority, and other such words) the orwell-government was constantly working on which words should be eliminated, and on how to go about rationalizing the elimination of such words. The new limited language would than be what would be taught in the public schools and made acceptable at home to use. Since children in this world were also encouraged to speak out if there parents did anything possibly rebellious to the government the parents would only dare use the latest edition of newspeak with there kids.
Once again the truth is a little sneakier than Orwell's methods. We have not limited the words. That would be way to obvious. Instead we have changed how we use the words, and by doing this have changed the definitions to mean often opposite of their original meaning. The end result is the same as if you had eliminated the words altogether. It shoudl be noted as well that we also make a regular practice of demonizing words, phrases, and arguments to the extent that the original meanings are lost (i.e. liberal, gay, and also a number of names such as Darwin who was a surprisingly religious man). The best examples of words meanings being changed, that come to my mind are conservative, and federal.
Currently if you say the word conservative people will commonly associate this with the Republican party. Now before I go on it should be noted that I am a paleo-conservative; someone who stands by the original ideas that the republican party was founded on. The word conservative comes from the same word as conservation. This was, in the political arena to be applied to conservation of american wealth, and conservation of limited government power, including avoiding wars that do not threaten american lives. Oh, how we have fallen. The modern "conservative" or neo-conservative (neo-con for short) has instead expanded government in all dimensions, started aggresive wars, as well as has increased government spending. What happened to the platforms the republican's once stood for? It is now very rare to find a conservative "conservative", through association with the Republican party which has betrayed all principles it was founded on the meaning of the word conservative has been changed in the eyes of the mainstream public.
The next big example that is a part of our everyday lives would be the word federal. The word federal comes from the word confederate. This word is used to refer to an alliance. When it came to putting together the US constitution. There were two views on which way we should go. You had the philosophies of nationalism and federalism. The people who believed in nationalism wanted the states to stand as one sovereign nation with a centralized government where as those who believed in federalism wanted each state to have its own strong local government making for a decentralized goverment thus more adaptive to local needs and less likely to innapropriately seize power. The people who wanted nationalism thus decided to get sneaky, and called theselves the Federalists. They than proceeded to publish a number of documents called the Federalist papers. This move than put the actual federalists into an inconvenient spot as they couldn't call themselves the Nationalists. It would have hurt their argument. So instead they called themselves the Anti-federalists. As a direct result of these marketing tactics employed by nationalist, today just about anything that is "Federal" is speaking about centralized government, the exact opposite of true federalism.
Lets also take a look at the demonized word conspiracy.
American Heritage Dictionary
con·spir·a·cy (kən-spîr'ə-sē)
n. pl. con·spir·a·cies
1. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2. A group of conspirators.
3. Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
4. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of wind and tide that devastated coastal areas.
Isn't it interesting that anyone who believes there is the possibility of a conspiracy is a "conspiracy nut", and that by believing there is a possiblity that some of these politicians might be out for their own profit at the expense of the people is automatically discredited as soon as the word conspiracy is spoken? The fact that a single word quiets or discredits every inquiry into the lives of politicians and newsmen should send up a red flag right there. Yes, some of the people who back up conspiracy theories are really out there. It is however dangerous, to not at least look and see for ourselves if there isn't any truth behind these claims. To be able to have the definition of someone who believes in conspiracies as just some nut is a very dangerous idea to the people. That is like telling your kids that no strangers are ever dangerous and anyone who tells you they are is just crazy.
These were the most extreme examples I could think of for this particular Orwellian technique that is in heavy application. I only hope that I have brought to your attention some things to watch for. These are subtle techniques, and are so regular they are part of our everyday lives, as well as a number of fields. Always be mindful of what you are being told. Believe nothing without reason, and accept nothing as truth without first thouroughly examining it. Orwell used a number of other techniques in his book 1984, and overtime I would like to cover all of them. If you enjoyed this, or got anything out of it than please stayed tune. Thankyou for taking the time to read this, and please, take a second look at the words we use regularly and take for granted.
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Two of my favorite demonizing phrases: Saturday Night Special for an inexpensive revolver that even poor people can afford (only the rich should be able to afford guns); Semi-automatic Assault Rifle for a rifle that functions and uses the same ammo as many other rifles but happens to look like a military rifle (military assault rifles all have full-auto).
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Posted by GaryR
on 2008-06-24 17:27:40
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| Views: 180
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