Language: A tool to control people

In the George Orwell’s novel 1984 the control of people is complete. Nobody can do anything behind the Party’s back which represents a totalitarian regime. Big Brother can see everything and he is the owner of the truth. The ministers are responsible for keeping weak, poor, fearful and solitary people. Propaganda only goes in one direction, demonizing anyone who pursues ideals contrary to the Party. Even language –or Newspeak in the context of 1984- makes more difficult the development of a free thought that is because language is more and more limited.

As we know language is a powerful tool that allows us communication and with that communication we can be able of organizing as humanity in order to build societies. However, language not always can be used in a positive way but also in a negative one. As Owell (2001) explains language “…like any other tool… can be abused, used not to build but to destroy, not to communicate but to confuse, not to clarify but to obscure, not to lead but mislead” (p. 136, 139)

That is precisely the main purpose of Newspeak, the language created by the Party in 1984. In other words, this new way of communication tries to destroy the free thought and confuse people in order to avoid the rebellion of them.

Newspeak: A tool of social control

Newspeak is an effective tool in the dystopic reality proposed by Orwell, because according to him language determines thought. He believes that is impossible to think something without the precise words for that purpose. In the novel, it is possible to clearly identify the aim of Newspeak through the words of Syme, an expert in that field because he was a philologist, specialist in Newspeak and he was working in the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary. Syme tries to convince Winston that this new language really works.

“Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we're not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller” (Orwell, 1983)

We can see that Newspeak is being implemented in a progressive way trying to replace the old way of communication which has much more words, is more complex and allows the possibility of thinking in a more free way, something that the party tries to avoid at all costs.

The power of euphemisms

The way of thinking is not only delimited by the number of words –which are constantly being reduced- or by the nature of these decontextualized words that have just one meaning, but also by the use of words which works with the principles that governs publicity generating a good impression in people. These words are known as euphemisms and they modify the perception of some concepts. “A euphemism is used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in
order to avoid possible loss of face either one’s own face or, through giving offense, that of the audience, or of some third party” (Allan & Burridge,1991, p.11)

One example of a euphemism used in 1984 is the concept of Big Brother which is used to refer to this omniscient and omnipresent being that was created with the aim of instilling fear. However, the concept Big Brother generates a false closeness to this figure. Other examples are the names of the ministries: The Ministry of Love, Peace, Plenty and Truth which functions are opposite to the names of each ministry. For example, the Ministry of Peace is in charge of keeping Oceania in a permanent war and the Ministry of Truth manipulates the truth and lies to people.

The usage of euphemisms in totalitarian regimes is very common, as in the case of the Alan Moore and Davis Lloyd’s graphic novel V for Vendetta. In this novel the oppressive system is formed by five intelligence departments which have names related with the five senses:  the Ears (in charge of listen private conversations), the Eye (which function are the spy-cameras), the Nose (formed by investigators), the Fingers (formed by the oppressive police) and the Mouth (radio station in charge of spreading the slogans of the regime). 

   

The curious thing here is that both Orwell and Moore were able to predict something that is happening now. Nowadays euphemisms are essential tools to persuade people in topics that generate rejection like deaths, wars, abuses of power, etc. In this way, in both politics and advertising the use of euphemisms is almost an obligation. Orwell in his essay Politics and the English Language (2001) explains the function of euphemisms in politics.

 “In our time… political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible… Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemisms, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness…
…Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder expectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”. (p. 136, 139)

There are many examples of euphemisms applied in politics, but most of them have as function downplaying certain facts like murders or changing the roles of victimizers to victims. For example, in Nazi Germany it was used some euphemisms like final solution to refer to an extermination or special treatment to talk about execution in gas chambers. Nowadays some examples of euphemisms are collateral damage instead of accidental deaths, put to sleep instead of euthanize, departed instead of died, etc.

From Newspeak to Doublethink

Returning to the Orwell’s novel, Newspeak is the instrument or bridge that uses the Party to generate in people what they call Doublethink, which is defined in 1984 through the fictional book The Theory and Practice of oligarchical Collectivism, written by the largest Party regime dissident Emmanuel Goldstein:

“DOUBLETHINK means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them… The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt” (Orwell, 1983).

This practically conscious and voluntary mechanism of mental control is applied by the Party in permanent way. Even it is possible to distinguish it in the slogan of the Party “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” and also, as we seen before, in the ministries which names are opposite to what they promote.

Rebellion through language

As we can notice language is a sort of modeler of the thought and in the Orwell’s dystopic novel we can appreciate how the Party takes control of it as a strategy of taking control of people’s ideas. However, the few people who try to fight against it, as in the case of Winston, cling to the old language which allow them to express with more freedom because it is a more sophisticated and complex way of communication.

This point can also be compared with the graphic novel V for Vendetta, in which a more sophisticated language used by the protagonist is a tool to show a more free thought. In this case, V uses a more complex way of communication which has been acquired through an enormous knowledge provided by the prohibited books that he has in his secret gallery. For that reason, it is no difficult to find in the novel some quotes of classical literature’s masterpieces which through the protagonist have the role of confronting the culture with the ignorance as if both represent good and evil. One example of these famous quotes is when we can see V for the first time, who while is saving Every Hammond quotes a part of Macbeth, one of the most famous plays written by William Shakespeare.   

 “…And fortune, on his damned quarrel, smiling, showed like a rebel’s whore…But all’s too weak for brave Macbeth… Well he deserves that name…Disdaining fortune with his brandished steel which smoked with bloody execution…” (Moore & Lloyd, 1988).

In this novel, the same principle as in 1984 is applied by the totalitarian regime, and it is the idea of denying the access to the truth or different truths that can be found in the books that do not share the same ideology of the regime that domains the society. Taking this into consideration, V represents freedom or free thought at its very best, and in a way Winston tries to defend the same ideology, because he dares to write contrary ideas to the Party and he reveals against rules that prohibit love. However, despite the similarities in this aspect, both characters are different because the context and their stories diverge. On the one hand, V fights against the government with violence motivated by revenge and on the other hand Winston not completely convinced tries to find a truth that seems to be hidden.

Final considerations

It seems to be that George Orwell when wrote 1984 wanted to give us a warning in order to avoid being a person like Winston Smith in a modern totalitarian society. However, for many people this novel has been used as a recipe to control the masses. That theory can explain why there are so many coincidences between what Orwell proposed in his dystopic reality and what is happening now.

Nowadays the manipulation of information is as evident as in 1984; the use of euphemisms in politics and publicity is an obligation; and the Doublethink confuses us avoiding seeing the reality. This world shows us a president who has sent thousands of soldiers as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize; the press shows us the terrorism as a criminal action as an argument to kill people; and the advertising generates in people false needs in order to sell some products.

It seems to be that the dystopia is a reality; we are watched, controlled and the Big Brother tells us what we have to do. The big bother in this reality is the money and as in the end of the novel it is all right, everything is all right, the struggle was finished. We have won the victory over ourselves. We love the money.

Bibliography

Allan, K., & Burridge, K. (1991). Euphemism & dysphemism: Language used as shield and weapon. Oxford University Press, USA.

DOMÍNGUEZ, P. J. C. (2005). Some theses on euphemisms and dysphemisms. Zeszyt, Studia Anglica Resoviensia, 25.

Lutz, W. (1989). Beyond Nineteen Eighty-Four: Doublespeak in a Post-Orwellian Age. National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801 (Stock No. 02859-3020; $12.95 member, $15.95 nonmember)..

Moore, A. & Lloyd, D. (1988). V for Vendetta. DC Comics.

Orwell, G. (1983). 1984. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Orwell, G. (2001). Politics and the English language. Блесок-литература и други уметности, (21).