The famous futuristic novel 1984 by George Orwell is known for introducing the concept of ‘newspeak’ and ‘doublethink’. He wrote, “People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called ‘elimination of unreliable elements’. Such phraseology is indeed if one wants to name things without calling up mental picture of them.” The novel, whose sales continue to soar, talks about the war that aims at scheming dissent with the support of dictatorship through raising general dread and disgust. The lingo of newspeak (misleading, distorted and ambiguous) overshadows the mental landscape of the people. A kind of deliberate euphemism, which tries to drill the affairs of the people, gives antithetical meaning to notions and concepts—War is peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength.
Newspeak is thehallmark of present era. Orwell’s prophecy has come true beyond measure. In thename of return to peace, war is unleashed to gain control over lands andpeoples. Under the pretext of enduring freedom, slavery is propagated to chainmen and minds. And, ignorance is purported as strength in the persistence ofany chronic status quo. States are increasingly obscuring the issues andhoodwinking people by newspeak: Dodging accountability to fool the masses bysimply corrupting the language. From an internationally misconstrued war onterror to local healing touch, the need of newspeak is usually fostered by theelements who want to prolong their power. The misrepresentation of realities istheir fodder, and they cannot afford starving for truth or facts.
Regimes, as such,thrive on newspeak. A baggage of white lies and rosy concoctions, packed inmisleading and ambiguous form, helps regimes to protract their hegemony. And,in eventuality of any public outcry, it’s only newspeak by which they getawaysuccessfully. They plainly disown what they covertly and actually meant byreverting to real connotation. A tricky and equally arty play of words thatcamouflages fictitious from fact.
From ‘either withus or against us’ to non-military preemptive strike’, the newspeak stays. Infact, the historically clever newspeak statement came from US Armed ForcesPress Officer in Cambodia Colonel David Opfer, who while talking to reporters,after US bombing raid said-“You always write it’s bombing, bombing, bombing.It’s not bombing! It’s air support!”
Well, nearer home,few years back, one of the top police officials in the wake of turmoil said toa particular TV channel-“We are not imposing writ of the State. We are imposingcurfew”.
There are instancesof brushing aside wrongs committed by individuals as their ‘Style’. Very often,arrogance is termed as ‘administrative acumen’ and clumsiness as ‘silentefficiency’. Manipulation is applauded as ‘mastery’. Fraud as ‘finesse’.Slyness as ‘smartness’. And, duplicity as ‘diplomacy’. There is a plethora of labels/terms/phrasesto delude others, and escape unscathed for any damn thing.
Bottomline: Newspeakrules us. Rules our affairs, day in and out. Nonetheless, we are unwittinglybecoming the victims of the sickness we are expert in. We distort things onlyto be duped at some point of time by some other forces. We misrepresent factsonly to be fizzled out ultimately in the scheme of things. We lie only to belampooned by destiny, lastly. Perhaps, it is always just a matter of time.
Of course, Orwellwas well-versed with the subtlety of speculation. He had anticipated theinsidious reach of newspeak and its adverse impact on the world. However, hehad not taken into account the course of its backlash. All of us stand witnessto such Orwellian unmasking. Quite ironically!