Orwellian

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The adjective Orwellian describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society. It connotes an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past, including the "unperson" — a person whose past existence is expunged from the public record and memory, practiced by modern repressive governments. Often, this includes the circumstances depicted in his novels, particularly Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Orwell's ideas about personal freedom and state authority developed when he was a British colonial administrator in Burma. He was fascinated by the effect of colonialism on the individual person, requiring acceptance of the idea that the colonialist oppressor exists only for the good of the oppressed person and people.

There has also been a great deal of discourse on the possibility that Orwell galvanized his ideas of oppression during his experience, and his subsequent writings in the English press, in Spain. Orwell was a member of the POUM militia and suffered suppression and escaped arrest by the Comintern faction working within the Republican Government. Following his escape he made a strong case for defending the Spanish revolution from the Communists there, and the mis-information in the press at home. During this period he formed strong ideas about the reportage of events, and their context in his own ideas of imperialism and democracy. In 1940 he engaged himself in the practise of supporting mis-information for a revolutionary purpose with the Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius. A counter-point to his previous work, immediately after his return from Spain, Homage to Catalonia. Homage was elementary in Orwell's definition of the process of truth-power connection and its relevance to ideas of freedom versus authority, whereas Lion & Unicorn was a formative piece of 'propaganda'. The narrative of the two is one that informed Orwell's later works such as 1984 and Animal Farm.

Meanings

The adjective Orwellian refers to these behaviours of State and The Party, especially when the Party is the State:

• The political manipulation of language, by obfuscation, e.g. WAR IS PEACE. Using language to obfuscate meaning or to reduce and eliminate ideas and their meanings that are deemed dangerous to its authority.
• Invasion of personal privacy, either directly physically or indirectly by surveillance.
• State control of its citizens' daily life, as in a "Big Brother" society.
• Official encouragement of policies contributing to the socio-economic disintegration of the family.
• The substitution of traditional religion^{[citation needed]} with the adoration of state leaders and their Party.
• The encouragement of "doublethink," whereby the population must learn to embrace inconsistent concepts without dissent, e.g. giving up liberty for freedom. Similar terms used, are "doublespeak", and "newspeak"
• The revision of history in the favour of the State's interpretation of it.
• A (generally) dystopian future.

Big Brother

The most common sense of Orwellian is that of the all-controlling "Big Brother" state, used to negatively describe a situation in which a Big Brother authority figure — in concert with "thought police" — constantly monitors the population to detect betrayal via "improper" thoughts. Orwellian also describes oppressive political ideas and the use of euphemistic political language in public discourse to camouflage morally outrageous ideas and actions. In this latter sense, the term is often used as a means of attacking an opponent in political debate, by branding his or her policies as Orwellian. When used like this in political rhetoric if it is not sincere, it is interesting to note as it can be a case of a hypocritical Orwellian strategist denouncing Orwellian strategies.

Political language

Orwell tried to promote the use of more precise language in political discourse, and he criticised political language popular at the time, such as "running-dog lackey" and "Fascist octopus," which he said prevented thought. It seems unlikely that Orwell would have approved of many of the uses to which his pseudonym is applied. The loose definition of the term and the often poor correlation between the real-life situations people describe as Orwellian and his own dystopian fiction leave the use of the adjective at best inexact and frequently politically inaccurate. In his essay "Politics and the English Language", Orwell derides the use of cliché and dying metaphors, which "even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent" and goes on to say "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."

In many of his essays and letters Orwell criticised words with formally precise definitions being used badly and the vague slide in meaning for many of these words. He was a fierce critic of Fascism but he would freely mock the promiscuous use of the word:

See also

• Bibliography of George Orwell
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Mass surveillance
• National security

References

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (October 2008)

1. Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. A novel. London: Secker & Warburg. [9]
2. Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. A novel. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. [10]
3. Orwell, George (1977 (reissue)). 1984, Erich Fromm (Foreword), Signet Classics. ISBN 0451524934.
4. Orwell, George (2003 (Centennial edition)). Nineteen Eighty-Four, Thomas Pynchon (Foreword); Erich Fromm (Afterword), Plume. ISBN 0452284236.

External links

• Finding Orwell in Burma

v • d • e Works of George Orwell Novels Burmese Days (1934) · A Clergyman's Daughter (1935) · Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) · Coming Up for Air (1939) · Animal Farm (1945) · Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) Nonfiction Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) · The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) · Homage to Catalonia (1938) Essays The Spike (1931) · A Hanging (1931) · Shooting an Elephant (1936) · Inside the Whale (1940) · Boys' Weeklies (1940) · The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius (1941) · Second Thoughts on James Burnham (1946) · The Moon Under Water (1946) · Politics and the English Language (1946) · Decline of the English Murder (1946) · A Nice Cup of Tea (1946) · Why I Write (1946) · Such, Such Were the Joys (1946) · Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool (1947) Related articles Searchlight Books · Secker and Warburg · Victor Gollancz Ltd · Eileen O'Shaughnessy · Sonia Brownell · Orwell's list · Eric & Us · Why Orwell Matters · Orwell Award · Orwell Prize · Orwellian Texts · Quotes · Images