From the Newspeak Dictionary:
The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought -- that is, a thought diverging from the principles of IngSoc -- should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meaning and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meaning whatever.
To give a single example - The word free still existed in Newspeak, but could only be used in such statements as "The dog is free from lice" or "This field is free from weeds." It could not be used in its old sense of "politically free" or "intellectually free," since political and intellectual freedom no longer existed even as concepts, and were therefore of necessity nameless.
The Republicans have taken Madison Avenue marketing techniques and applied them ruthlessly and effectively to presidential politics. Part of their campaign was to take all the words that Democrats used to describe themselves and to turn them into pejoratives. Their biggest achievement was to essentially take away the word liberal as a positive label. Feminists were converted to feminazis. When the Democrats tried to get rid of racist and sexist terms, they were vilified as promoting political correctness. . The Republicans even took to calling the Democratic Party the Democrat Party and linked "tax and spend" to the word Democrat. It became hard to talk about being a Democrat without using words that had been poisoned. I suspect they consciously attempted to use the principles of Newspeak - "making other modes of thought impossible" - to make talking about traditional liberal issues impossible. Sarah Palin tried to do this with the term 'community organizer' when she mocked Obama in her acceptance speech.
On page 4 of the online copy of 1984 Winston sees the Ministry of Truth which has three slogans of the Party painted on it:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
This was the goal of the Swiftboating campaign. In this election we see it in the stealth campaign that says Obama is a Muslim. If you tell a lie often enough, people believe it.
The Two Minutes of Hate begins on page 10. The Republicans have multiplied this into nearly 24 hours of hate on talk radio and Fox News. The image below comes from books.google.com.
The Two Minutes of Hate begins on page 10. The Republicans have multiplied this into nearly 24 hours of hate on talk radio and Fox News. The image below comes from books.google.com.
I'd always thought that the fact that Bin Laden was still alive and free somewhere proved the ineffectiveness of the Bush Administration. But after rereading that passage, perhaps they find that Bin Laden far more useful alive, as the icon of evil, just as their mentors in Oceana used Goldstein.
Democrats who believe that truth and rationality are important for all voters are totally missing the boat. Yes, we need to expose all the lies for those who still use reason. But we also have to constantly examine language to be sure it isn't being shaped in ways that limit our ability to think. By talking about and demonstrating the manipulation of language, we can help people see how they are being manipulated.
WOW!!! It's been decades since I read 1984 and had forgotten much of the details. The three slogans are so terrifyingly close to what the Republican party is pushing--especially Ms. Six-pack herself. I'll be sending many to this post.
ReplyDeleteIt is my hope that we can stop fighting over what the Republicans and the Democratics do and don’t do. That is distracting to a strong society, and an unfortunate use of time. I have many friends who align themselves with at least these two political parties and I don’t really see much daily difference between how they view the world or live their lives. And, after all, a political party can do nothing to me on it’s own… only if I elect it to a position of governance over me. And when that happens my Orwellian foe loses party affiliations and just becomes the Government.
ReplyDeleteThe main point of 1984 is not the technique of the government or a particular party’s mechanisms for control but, rather, the acquiescence of the We-the-People to mass control mechanisms. I submit that we suck into the Newspeak every time we overly participate in the language of polling or the false premise that we have and should support a 2 party system. The ideas that a 3rd party candidate could exist, or that a candidate could be winning or losing before an election are both clearly Newspeak, as well. For a 3rd party to exist, we have to accept the false premise that there are 2 parties and for an election to be won before a vote is clearly a falsehood as winning and losing can only occur with the vote.
I am a slave. But I am not a slave to someone else’s trap… I am a slave to my own fears. And that is sad because there really isn’t much to be afraid of in this world: we are born and we die and what comes in between is just filler. And if life is filler, and this world is my box, don’t I have a say in how that box fills? My big problem is that I am taking other peoples’ junk and filling my box with it… which leaves precious little space for my stuff.
On the point of how the last Presidential election distorted and lied about John Kerry’s war record, I say that is a true thing and a bad thing but it also shows how we are manipulated into situations of low-level thinking… much like asking the question: who won the Biden/Palin ‘Debate?’ These are argument points and do not represent what I think is the deeper concern and the concern that Orwell was trying to highlight. The introduction and negativism towards intelligence, or intellectualism, is the more dangerous issue. To have a candidate mocked because he or she belongs to an intellectual elite is not something that just makes me sad but it makes me feel deep shame, too.
It is my hope that the smartest and most intellectually prepared will rise to the leadership roles of my country regardless of whether those posts are civil or military. That the power of good thinking will over-rule the power of campaign ‘war-chests’ and that open and honest debates will erupt all around me regarding the right way to move forward as a society rather than whether Sarah Palin is too stupid to be Vice-President of the United States of America.
The ‘Palin is too-stupid’ argument is the power behind Newspeak in action. Instead of recognizing that Governor Palin does not possess experience, skill or brains sufficient to lead our country, we are just discussing whether she is too stupid… or meets minimum qualification. This is a sad position to be in. But Ms Palin has already done her Newspeak job. She may not be too stupid to take the role of VP, but she certainly is too limited to do it well. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that her stupidity quotient causes us to not look at the remarkably bad qualifications of John McCain along these lines.
McCain’s overlooked, and limiting, qualifications: He’s bright but not smart, progressive in some areas but a staunch conservative, a war hero but never a military leader and a proponent of ideas but definitely not an original thinker. He is nothing I want or need as a leader but apply Newspeak and he fits in to our collective criteria for a leader very well. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t care less about his background, that he went to the Naval Academy or that he’s the 4th generation in his family to do so (or is it the 3rd?). He graduated at the bottom of his class, suffered a humiliating defeat in an aimless war against an unwarranted opponent and has aspirations to be President of the United States of America. Yes, that pretty much sums up McCain for me… kind of interesting that it sums up another great American war hero as well: George Armstrong Custer ( a man who led his troops to their death for poor reasons but did it anyway).
I want the best and the brightest both to lead my country and me. I want to have confidence that their ability to think through complex issues will not be below my own and that I will both have the opportunity to have confidence in my leaders’ actions as well as their ability to think through new situations. I want to know that my President cannot only remember and pronounce the names of important leaders in the world, but also that they will be able to meet with them on their own and not have to send smart representatives in their place. I want my leaders to want to lead and have the skills to do it and to command respect because of who they are rather than for job they hold.
I want Obama to be my President not because I think he is the most qualified militarist but because he is a most qualified leader. Not because he his past includes education but because he excelled in both his education and the education of others. And certainly not because he will make a good President but because he will enhance the Office of the President of the United States of America through his personal ability, intelligence and dignity (I don’t want a good President; I want a President who can make my nation good).
Final thought for all of us:
We are not watching a sporting event or a soap opera when watching the Presidential election; we are watching our lives. The outcome of this election is going to have a great effect on how each of our boxes is filled for at least the next 4 years and, likely, long beyond. This time around, let’s not wait for the polls to form our opinions or get overly involved in explaining levels of stupidity. Instead, let’s spend the next 30 or so days only focusing on clear statements for why Obama/ Biden will be the right choice for all Americans and discontinue the Newspeak of Republicans vs Democratics. Mr McCain is not too old nor too stupid to be the President of our United States… he’s just not the smartest or most qualified candidate.
I am voting for Senator Obama not because he’s a Democratic Party candidate nor because the polls tell me he’s the right one… I am voting for him because I feel something very good inside when he speaks and I think he’s smart and sensible enough to represent me.
Eric
"I am voting for Senator Obama not because he’s a Democratic Party candidate nor because the polls tell me he’s the right one… I am voting for him because I feel something very good inside when he speaks and I think he’s smart and sensible enough to represent me."
ReplyDeleteI think that the majority of us who support Obama feel the same way. He gives us hope that we can succeed as a country and find ways to fix the things that have become so badly broken. To me, he represents the future and the possibility of a better world for my 13-year-old daughter to inherit.
I hope that tomorrow night's debate focuses on the issues and the candidates' solutions rather than mudslinging and past-dredging. We, the people, deserve that much from our candidates. I hope the questioners in the Town Hall ask well.