Language as a Powerful Mind Control Weapon Essay Example for Free

Language as a Powerful Mind Control Weapon EssayNineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is a classic dystopian bracing by face author George Orwell. Akin to the latters earlier work, Animal Farm (1945), Nineteen Eighty-Four is a cautionary tale near the dangers of totalitarianism. The novels main character, Winston metalworker, is a civil servant tasked with disseminating government propaganda through the forging of records and political literature. Disillusioned with such a mechanistic existence, Smith begins an uprising against the regime a move which later resulted in his incarceration and torture.The esteem of Nineteen Eighty-Four can be attributed mainly to its frank and pictorial portrayal of the perpetuation of the status quo at the expense of individual rights (Gearon 65). Many of the novels terminologies and ideas, such as doublethink, Orwellian, vernalspeak and Big Br opposite, eventually acquired secure places in the English language (Trahair 289). At present, some thinkers even use these expressions and concepts to criticize repressive government policies.The term Orwellian, for instance, is currently an idiom that refers to any form of normality that closely resembles the Party (Cameron 151). One of Orwells major arguments in the novel is that language is the totalitarian governments most designerful weapon of theme control. Through the usage of deceptive language and propaganda, as well as the modification of language, the Party was able to manipulate the concepts and beliefs of the citizens of Oceania. Newspeak was the Partys primary centre of mis ahead(p) the citizens of Oceania (Thomas, Singh, Peccei, Jones and Wareing 39).It was a corrupted form of Standard English (known in the novel as Oldspeak) that reflected the principles of Ingsoc. Undesirable manner of speaking were eliminated from the lingua franca, while those that were retained were bleak of unorthodox denotations (Ji 1). Consequently, it became impossible to develop other mode s of thought in Newspeak (Orwell 144). Newspeak was much than just a language it was the (embodiment) of the totalitarian (mindset) of the Party members (Gerovitch 12).To accommodate alternate views would enlarge the possibility of encountering heretical thoughts (Gerovitch 13). It is no longer surprising, therefore, if the Party required all inhabitants of Oceania to use Newspeak doing so was a very convenient way of indoctrinating them with Ingsoc beliefs. The immense power of language to control the mind is not a fictional phenomenon. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (n. d. ) argued that language determined how human beings perceived their environment (Thomas, Singh, Peccei, Jones and Wareing 39).This assumption is composed of twain parts linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism. Linguistic relativity theorized that the languages of different cultures do not necessarily ease up equivalent systems of representation. Linguistic determinism, meanwhile, asserted that a langu age not wholly reflected certain aspects of reality but also influenced the speakers thought process (Thomas, Singh, Peccei, Jones and Wareing 25). It would be fair to say that the supposal behind the development and usage of Newspeak was based on the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.In the novels appendix, it is revealed that Ingsoc was originally known as English Socialism (Orwell 143). But during the epoch of English Socialism, pot spoke Standard English. Consequently, they were exposed to radical ideas that inspired them to turn against the Party (Ji 1). In retaliation, the Party silenced them through penalty and fright (Ji 1). The Party eventually viewed the period of English Socialism as one that was characterized with violence and lawlessness. Standard English, meanwhile, was regarded as a relic of an anarchic past that essential be discarded at all costs.The Party even set a year in which they expected Standard English to be already nonexistent 2050 (Orwell 143). In the appendi x of the novel, Orwell wrote the Partys ultimate dream a society wherein everyone accepted the official ideology even without the threat of punishment and terror (Ji 1). This was only possible, however, if they had no access to subversive ideas. It must be noted that in the context of the novel, Standard English was regarded as the source of heretical concepts.The Party therefore realized that Standard English must be replaced with a singular and specially contrived language Newspeak. When plenty spoke, heard, read and wrote only in Newspeak, they could be kept under control even without outright state persecution (Ji 1). Newspeak was the official language of Oceania and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year 1984 there was not as yet anyone who used Newspeak as his sole means of communication, either in speech or writing.The leading articles in The Times were written in it, but this was a tour de force which could only be car ried out by a specialist. It was expected that Newspeak would have finally superseded Oldspeak (or Standard English, as we should call it) by about the year 2050. (143) The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the (worldview) and psychogenic habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible.It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to utilise exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of newwords, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and by stripping s uch words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meanings whatever. To give a iodine example. The word free still existed in Newspeak, but it could only be used in such statements as This dog is free from lice or This sphere is free from weeds. It could not be used in its old sense of politically free or intellectually free since political and intellectual granting immunity no longer existed even as concepts, and were therefore of necessity nameless.(144) A person growing up with Newspeak as his sole language would no more know that equal had once had the secondary meaning of politically equal, or that free had once meant intellectually free, than for instance, a person who had never heard of rig would be aware of the secondary meanings attaching to queen and rook. There would be many crimes and errors which it would be beyond his power to commit, simply because they were nameless and therefore unimaginable. (148-149)This ambition, however, w as not without secure consequences. The individual rights of the people of Oceania were severely violated. They constantly lived in headache of government reprisal landscapes across London were bombarded with posters of Big Brother with the caption Big Brother is observance You (Orwell 1). Two-way television sets telescreens were installed in all homes and public establishments in order to monitor the populace for any sign of subversive activity (thoughtcrime). Worse, the Party back up everyone to spy on one another.Even children were ordered to report their parents to the authorities (Thought Police) if they caught them committing a thoughtcrime. Winston Smith was among those who paid the ultimate price. Upon his arrest, he was taken to the Ministry of Love, where he was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy torture. Winston was afterwards taken to the infamous Room 101, where a prisoner was tortured by being exposed to his or her greatest fear. Winstons primal fear was rat s he was therefore tortured by having a wire cage full of starving rats brought near to his face.Petrified, Winston finally accepts Party ideology and was later released as a brainwashed individual. Sadly, it is obvious that Orwells warning in Nineteen Eighty-Four went unheeded. At present, there are still so many societies wherein people are stripped of their basic rights and liberties. What is more saddening is that some of the parties who are guilty of this wrongdoing are actually claiming that they are staunch advocates of freedom, justice and equality. They use fatten out propaganda to proclaim their advocacy while acting in a completely opposite manner.The Party used language in order to keep the people of Oceania silent, ignorant and oppressed. In doing so, the former proved that evil prospers where good is silent. Orwell, on the other hand, used words in order to expose and fight this atrocity. In doing so, he proved that the pen is mightier than the sword.Works CitedCamer on, Deborah. Verbal Hygiene. New York Routledge, 1995. Gearon, Liam. Freedom of Expression and Human Rights Historical, Literary and Political Contexts. Eastbourne Sussex Academic Press, 2006. Gerovitch, Slava.From Newspeak to Cyberspeak A History of Soviet Cybernetics. Cambridge MIT Press, 2004. Ji, Fengyuan. Linguistic Engineering Language and Politics in Maos China. Honolulu University of Hawaii Press, 2004. Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. n. p. n. d. Thomas, Linda, Ishtla Singh, Jean Stilwell Peccei, Jason Jones, and Shan Wareing. Language, Society and Power An Introduction. 2nd ed. New York Routledge, 2004. Trahair, R. C. S. Utopia and Utopians A Historical Dictionary. Santa Barbara Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999.