Many people think the term "doublespeak" comes from Orwell's "1984". It doesn't (although other terms such as "newspeak" and "doublethink" were coined by him in that novel.)
Actually, "doublespeak" hails back to the 1950s and refers to any language whose purpose is to deliberately distort or disguise the true meaning of something. It is also known as "doubletalk." This results in "communication bypass."
With a straight face today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told us that the U.S. Government's increasing it's stake in Citi Bank by buying even more inflated stock was "... not nationalization" of U.S. Banks. "It is protecting the taxpayers' interests."
Yeah. He say that, bro. No shee-it.
7 comments:
The Thought Police will get you, you know that don't you? Since when did you expect straight talking from a politician?
You'd better watch what you're writing, too, Max - Winston Smith only had a paper journal, not a blog (we may have to rewrite 1984, now that I think of it)...And by the way, that is quite a book cover. I want to know whether the artist actually read 1984 or not (I suspect "or not").
@A. - Thought police are not far off. Unless we stand up and do something pretty soon.
@Lidian - Sorry I did that. They just seemed to go together. Brave New World was a 1930s book about life in the FAR distant future and 1984 was a book written in the late 1940s by another author about how thing might be in the future of 40 years hence - 1984. I just thought they seemed to go together because if we don't change our direction, we will indeed be starting over, and after a complete government domination. Only my opinion, of course. Orwell's prediction of government controls of our daily lives didn't happen by 1984 as he predicted (that was far in the future for those living in 1949) but we are getting closer and closer to that point where government controls every little thing in our daily lives.
A Brave New World will happen if the unthinkable happens and we have to start over from scratch.
I have SO much to say about politics, but I will restrain myself. This is just a small dose. I am over it now. :)
I read 1984 in 1978. From the perspective of a 16-year-old, it seemed so incredibly far away. Of course, now it's incredibly far away in the other direction. We read Brave New World as well. I'm pretty sure our principal didn't know what our AP class was reading (there were only 4 of us in it).
I am no longer surprised by the lunacy uttered in Washington. Saddened, depressed, hopeless, but not surprised.
It's always good to know that Big Brother is Watching. I was always more of a fan of Animal Farm with it's simple slogan of Some Animals are More Equal than Others. This seems to be the motto of all Governments in all times.
As for Brave New World I have always been saddened that The Nazi gave Eugenics a bad name-it always seemed like a good idea to me. Besides, we kind of have that whole brave new world thing away-poor people empty the trash cans that the rich people fill.
One always wonders who actually writes the drivel that the politicians hand out to the world, they obviously don't think that people actually listens to what they say otherwise they would not say such stupid things.
Saving taxpayers money? They bailed out GM on the understanding that jobs would not be lost..... apparently over 50,000 jobs are going to be lost..... and they (GM) have come back to ask for more money!!!! The whirlpool effect is very evident.
Can I just point out I was too mesmerised by the book cover to fully read your post...
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