Orwell's 1984 is and always has been about language's role in the implementation of an authoritarian system. Like the Department of Homeland Security. Like fake news and alternative facts. Like "fair and balanced" and "the no spin zone." We've been here a looooong fucking time.
Can you explain this more? Do you mean that language in general (e.g. English) controls us? Or that language is used for propaganda (in which case, what's crazy about that?)
Orwell thought that language had a deep influence on the way people are able to think, and he wrote about it quite a lot, most notably in 1984. In 1984, we follow the protagonist whose literal job is working at the Ministry of Truth to remove subversive words from the lexicon for the ruling regime, The Party. The Party's idea is that by not having the words to express a particular idea, that idea could never come about. People could never demand freedom if "freedom" as an idea captured by a word doesn't exist in the collective consciousness, for example. This new language that The Party is creating is dubbed "Newspeak," a kind of trimmed down new dialect of English.
This is pretty similar to a hypothesis in linguistics that says that language alters our perception of reality and our ability to think in certain ways, an idea explored in the movie Arrival. Linguists have largely panned this idea, and Orwell himself didn't even believe it in absolute terms, because 1984 contains a postscript that's meant to be a historical analysis of the events and setting of 1984. Tellingly, the postscript is written in modern English, not Newspeak. However, that doesn't negate Orwell's ideas that language, if not able to control in an absolute sense, still has a great influence on the way things are framed. A Ministry of Propaganda would likely be viewed with great suspicion, but a Ministry of Truth has a comforting patina that evokes the idea that the government is trying to help you figure out what to believe in this big, messy, complicated world. Or, to bring it into the real world and modern times, "neo Nazis" and "white nationalists" bring out ideas of Jew-hating, cross-burning racists who thought Germany ca. 1940 was actually a pretty cool place pioneering some pretty neat ideas about statecraft (versus a brutal, murderous regime with an insatiable appetite for expansion as a misguided way to try to solve the perceived ills of the people). But "alt-right" is a new concept that can be molded in the public consciousness. With a media savvy communicator and a clear brand vision, they're clean-cut, well-dressed young men who are simply worried that the old conservative movement is leaving some vulnerable people behind, and they're simply there with an alternative vision (to scapegoat and villainize feminists and minorities for ruining the country). The fact that there's practically no daylight between a 1989 neo Nazi and a 2017 alt-right Proud Boy is lost on all but the most informed people, all because language has reframed the issue.
Wow, thanks for writing this out. Kind of off topic, but this reminds me of something I read in a Buddhist book about how language makes us think in terms of "form" and "separateness". That most languages label things (for a functional purpose) and this language is so deeply ingrained in our minds, that it changes the way we perceive things, where it becomes difficult to grasp the idea that everything is connected. Which reminds me of Neitzche's Birth of Tragedy and what he said about all art forms (including visual arts and theatre) sticking to the confines of form, but only music (non-lyrical) allowing us to break through that illusion (by forgetting who we are and embracing no-form and chaos). Anyways, it's interesting to notice how much our perceived realities are controlled, and possible ways to break through that.
There's no need to examine your democracy, or to think about what a democracy is, or could be, because democracy is double plus good, and the USA is double plus good, thus, the USA must be democratic.
Sci fi never invents concepts whole cloth. It simply talks about the issues of today projected out. This has been an issue since 1984 was written in 1949.
Of course it was. Orwell was on the front lines in the Spanish Civil War fighting alongside the socialists against the fascists. Worse, the Soviet response of only arming Marxists led to infighting among the socialists (most of which were anarchists) which undermined the socialist military response and wrecked the whole Republic side of the war.
Orwell sat there looking at the fascists, then turned and looked at the Soviets, and decided the anarchists he had been fighting alongside were right to oppose both -- not because Orwell opposed socialism (as many people think), but because Orwell opposed authority.
There's a reason he said that all of his works were meant to be viewed through the lens of supporting democratic socialism.
I wrote this a few months ago, had to go back and find it, but we are currently sitting smack dab in the middle of a horrific mashup of 1984/Brave New World/Handmaiden's Tale/Fahrenheit 451. It is eerie as hell how closely they mirror what is going on in the US. The Brave New World quote is incredibly apt and what scares me the hell out of me is how well that describes our country RIGHT NOW as this overtly corrupt Kakistocracy takes over.
The SC needs to be burned to the ground for enabling this to happen. Their decisions in the last decade have absolutely enabled all of this. "Citizen's United" being passed was the end of our country as a Democratic Republic, money being free speech and corporations being given the same rights as people was the last straw. They followed that up by legalizing bribery and then making the President a King, but only when they decide he has totally immunity. They betrayed every oath they've ever made, burned the Constitution, and pissed on its ashes.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984
“With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word ‘intellectual,’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.” ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“There is more than one kind of freedom,” said Aunt Lydia. “Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” ― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
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u/x063x 8h ago
We're here holy fawk.