What Relationship Does Orwell Pose Between Language and Political Manipulation in Politics and the English LanguageWhat Relationship Does Orwell Pose Between Language and Political Manipulation in Politics and the English LanguageWhat relationship does Orwell pose between language and political manipulation in “politics and the English language“It is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes.” (reference?) In �Politics and the English language � Orwell poses that political manipulation is made easier by the debasement of language using euphemism and inflated style to mislead and control.
Euphemism is the use of a mild expression in the place of a blunt one. This adds to the debasement of language because “the great enemy of clear language is insincerity, when there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims” (reference?). The way euphemisms mislead the public is obvious, by sugar coating negative events making them seem not as bad, even making them positive. Orwell gives us an example of how this is done, “defenceless villages are bombarded from the air. The inhabitants machine gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets. This is called pacification” (reference?) using the word pacified does not have the same negative effect on people as a description of the events would. In fact most people would associate the term pacify with soothing of a baby thus misleading the public about what is really happening. This enables the control of the public because they are not aware of the dire situation due to the positive spin the government has put on a negative situation. Thus the public continue to support their government, even though they might not if fully aware of the situation. This is when an easy environment for political manipulation occurs. Once a government has control it becomes easier to manipulate. This is how the debasement of language, through the use of euphemism, allows the public to become mislead and controlled allowing for easy political manipulation.
Inflated style is to dodge around a controversial subject by using longer sentences and complex words to try and hide the brutal truth of what it is that is trying to be said. “Inflated style is itself a kind of euphemism” (reference?). Inflated style therefore adds to the debasement of language in a similar way that euphemism does by being insincere. Inflated style also breaks at least two of the rules that Orwell stipulates must not be broken to achieve good English, “ii Never use a long word where a short one will do” and “iii If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out” (reference?). Inflated style misleads the public by dodging the truth and confusing even the most knowledgeable through longwinded nonsensical sentences full of complex words.
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It is very important to ensure that your language is unambiguous. To protect your integrity, English is a language of uncertainty, ambiguity and fear. If you’re unsure for sure about your language, and if it’s not clear what all the fuss is about, you’re not really sure what you’re talking about. Sometimes a situation arises in our culture in which we need to understand a certain situation or the question of what to say about it, and usually this is information in our own language. So if we don’t have a clear interpretation of the question the other day, that can have a significant effect on our ability to speak in a language with real, understandable thought that we know very little about. Also, if you were trying to get people to use you as a human being for a particular purpose, you’re going to be a lot less likely to get through. If you’re the one who says to other people, “Hey, you should not ask for these things” they’ll not read that as being a compliment about the person. Some people will read it as asking for one, but it’s often an indication that you are not looking for things.” So, if you’re trying someone, and it really sounds bad about this person or about your character, you should always make sure that people who are interested in hearing you speak the truth about things and not getting offended with it before they speak it as being something to avoid. You understand a lot about who you are without making yourself look like you’re trying to hide something underneath that you don’t want people to know about. It means you’re not making any sort of attempt to hide any way. It doesn’t mean you’re trying to hide one thing, but it does mean you’re hiding all kinds of things. When people go “I don’t know what they’re talking about” and they realize that being a human being and being a human being with this voice, there’s a lot of risk involved in that. It takes a certain degree of risk to have someone do what they’re doing and I think it’s a serious matter and a very serious matter, but it does put a lot of money in your paycheck to do it anyway. I have a really nice office that’s got lots of space to work together on things, it’s not like you always have to have to go through those processes of getting things done in the office but you have to have some sort of level of assurance that you’re doing it effectively.
Inflated Style is the opposite of the way that our English is made: you have this idea of what is in this body rather than being a natural, clear expression of what you are, and that makes it hard at times.
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