NewSpeak

[jarandhel]

I had a troubling thought today. We are walking down the road to NewSpeak. We have seen this for some time, but have probably not realized it for what it is. We call them Bushisms. We look at how he speaks and wonder how a man so ignorant could ever have risen to power. We miss the subtlety. His language is closely based on english, but has a greatly reduced and simplified vocabulary and grammar. It makes heavy use of tired metaphors, pretentious rhetoric, and meaningless words and phrases. It is a language of black and white, removing all shades of gray. You are with us, or you are against us. These are the characteristics of NewSpeak. It exists, and it is in use, and there is a significant subset of the population it appeals to.

Invasion is Liberation.
Dissent is UnAmerican.
Ignorance is Strength.

Welcome to Oceania.

Comments

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Erm...you just now figured this out?

(Then again, he also uses a lot of codewords targeted *directly* at the dominionist community, and they've been specialising in "newspeak" for the past fifty years or so :P)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

It's been a long time since I read 1984, and I just happened to be reading the wikipedia article on NewSpeak for mostly unrelated reasons, and it clicked. I had previously largely bought into the "he's just an idiot" idea, and groaned at the bushisms and the complete lack of eloquence.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Speaking of this, have you also noticed the similarities between the newspeak idea of "goodsex" (sex only for the purpose of making new party members), and current ideas regarding abstinance only education and marriage for procreative purposes?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

1984 is one of those books I hate but believe everyone needs to read anyway. Relevant 1984 quote here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/hummingwolf/279351.html#cutid1).

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

All the time, actually :P

Jarin, let me put it this way: I don't like to watch the news anymore because it keeps giving me *very* unpleasant flashbacks of when I grew up in a certain dominionist *cult*. If I watch too much I start getting mild panic attacks. Too many reminders of a hellish time in my life. :P

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Heh, I read that when you first posted it actually. :)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

*nods* Understood. I tend to approach that sort of thing in the opposite manner... when I see something that dysfunctional/cultic/evil, I attack.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Which actually probably relates a damned good bit to my Kylin side, come to think of it. Kylin are supposed to have a strong association with ideals of justice or righteousness... (which I personally translate more along the lines of the hawaiian idea of both, pono, which has more to do with harmony but still can contain the other concepts.)

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Oh, trust me, I'm doing all I can to fight back myself. :3 (Let's just say the Southern Poverty Law Center is getting a LOT of intel on these groups...and I think at times I'm overwhelming both them and Dark Christianity with info, heh.)

It's sometimes...damned hard not to get depressed though, especially on days the PTSD kicks in :P I'm just, well...fucking *sick* of it all, you know? *sigh*

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Heh, and I am as much of the "I refuse to be caged" bit, lol...but yeah.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

When I went to school, 1984 was required reading in 8th grade. How quickly the amnesia set in, once the "cold war" was declared "over".

No longer at war with Eurasia, Oceania, now friends with Eurasia, began preliminary skirmishes with Eastasia.

I immediately recognized 1984 all over the Bush administration and the neocon conglomerate ever since their first ugly manifestation in the public eye. I wonder if schools still require the book 1984. Probably not.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

They still did when I was in school, though it was only on the list of required summer reading, and none of the teachers ever knew anything about that list, so not doing it didn't mean much. I did it anyway, and I think I recall enjoying the book, but it was probably a good 9 or 10 years ago at this point.