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George Orwell on the Way Things Were (Or Are?)

George Orwell is primarily known for Animal Farm and 1984. That's unfortunate, as his best work was as an essayist. Orwell, more than anyone since, understood how language was used to control thought.  Today, for example, my friends are all throwing around "kinetic military action." Here is George Orwell, writing in 1946: In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of the political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on March 24, 2011 (boomark / email).