Manipulation In 1984 By George Orwell

Manipulation of language is a topic that is always interesting. The word ‘manipulation’ generally has a negative context, and this certainly applies in relation to language. Even if the motive is good, is it really better for you? Or the general population? Or is it really to control the population, exactly as in George Orwell’s 1984?

Manipulation of language is one of the themes of George Orwell's 1984. Language manipulation was one of the many ways the Inner Party controlled the population. The Ministry of Truth did this by creating a new language, Newspeak. This language was constructed to have no words for any unorthodox thoughts. Some of which are: that the government is bad, things could be better, or even life could be lived differently.

While this was written sixty-nine years ago, it is still relevant today. He states how the English language now has many overused phrases in common use, that have lost meaning because of how often they are used. “Bad writers, and especially scientific, political and sociological writers are nearly always haunted by the notation that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones”, Orwell states how phrases are overused till they lose meaning, use foreign words, the use of the passive voice over the active, and “Simple conjunctions and prepositions are replaced by such phrases as[:] with respect to, having regard to,the fact that, by the dint of, in view of, in the interest of” as reasons why English is in this bad state and it’s “Not the fault of a specific writer”. An example of bad English that Orwell has in his essay is “Above all, we cannot play ducks and drakes with a native battery of idioms which prescribes egregious collocations of vocables as the basic put up with for tolerate, or put at a loss for bewilder”. Orwell states how the five examples of bad English he gave (this was the second) has “two qualities in common, staleness of imagery and lack of precision”. He states how they are either “almost indifferent as to whether his word mean

These days there are things that the governments do that some would say is going towards the direction of 1984. Others will disagree. The government does try to manipulate you, during campaigns for elections each party tries to get you to vote for then by advertising. The have slogans. They may distract people from policies and laws they want to pass by having some other law or something. The whole flag referendum could be seen as a distraction from the TPPA. Which the National government really want to pass. Even those the public do not want it. Orwell’s essay does not go into politicians wanting to distract the public, but in 1984 this does exist. The whole war with Eurasia or Eastasia. Could be seen as a distraction, people have short memories in the novel so it’s not too easy to compare. Those you can to some degree. With the whole TPPA you could say that the government are relying on what Jem Berkes says the media rely on “In many ways the media rely on the principle that a piece of information that is repeated enough becomes accepts as truth”. That does happen. There are many common misconceptions. Some are historical. In 1984 history has been changed over and over. “Once all evidence of the change has been made is gone it’s accepted as fact” The Ministry of Truth's editing of history is, as I said to make the party look much better than they are and to control the