Politics and the English Language

Overview

• English is in decline, but this can be reversed with conscious effort
• Civilization is decadent, which influences language, indicating any effort to stop language abuse is sentimental
• Language is a tool, not a natural occurrence
• Political and economic factors explain the decline, not just a writer's influence
• An effect can reinforce the initial cause, intensifying the effect indefinitely
• A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks (like the English language)
• Foolish thoughts make language ugly, and poor language encourages these thoughts
• The process of language improvement and decline is reversible
• Modern English is full of bad habits spread by imitation which can be avoided with effort
• Clarity of thought is a necessary step towards political regeneration
• The fight against bad English is not frivolous
• The fight against bad English is not the exclusive concern of professional writers

Examples of Poor Modern English

• Examples illustrate mental shortcomings
• These examples serve as representative cases, falling slightly below average quality.
• Example 1: Harold Laski's Essay in Freedom of Expression features convoluted syntax and alienating language.
• Example 2: Lancelot Hogben's Interglossia mixes idioms incoherently.
• Example 3: An essay on psychology in Politics (New York) contains meaningless jargon and lacks genuine insight.
• Example 4: A Communist pamphlet uses hyperbolic and inflammatory language
• Example 5: A letter in Tribune presents an inflated and affected style, detached from genuine expression.

Qualities of Poor Writing

• Avoidable ugliness, staleness of imagery and lack of precision
• Writers are either unable to express meaning, say something else inadvertently, or do not care if words mean anything
• Vagueness and incompetence are the most noticeable characteristics
• Concrete ideas turn abstract, and hackneyed speech is used
• Prose relies on phrases strung together

Common Tricks Used in Poor Prose Construction

• This includes several common issues in modern writing, along with the impact on clarity and precision
• Newly invented metaphors assist thought by evoking a visual image
• Technically dead metaphors have effectively become ordinary words (e.g. iron resolution)
• Worn-out metaphors have lost all evocative power but save people from inventing new phrases
• Examples of overused metaphors include "ring the changes on," "take up the cudgel for," "toe the line," and others
• These phrases can be used without understanding their real meaning ("what is a rift?")
• Incompatible metaphors are frequently mixed, signaling a lack of engagement with the topic
• Current metaphors are twisted without users knowing
• "Toe the line" is written as "tow the line" and "hammer and anvil" is used to show the anvil getting the worst of the deal
• In real life, it is always the anvil that breaks the hammer
• A writer who stops to think would avoid perverting the original phrase

Operators or Verbal False Limbs

• These are phrases that avoid picking appropriate verbs and nouns and pad each sentence
• This padding gives the appearance of symmetry
• Characteristic phrases include "render inoperative," "militate against," "make contact with," and more
• The keynote is the elimination of simple verbs, replacing being a single word with a padded phrase
• Instead of using one word, a phrase is used
• Passive voice is used instead of active and noun constructions over gerunds
• Verbs are also cut down by -ize and de- formations
• Banal statements appear profound with the not un- formation
• Simple conjunctions and prepositions are replaced by longer phrases
• Sentence endings are saved by anticlimactic commonplaces

Pretentious Diction

• Phenomenon, element, and objective are words to dress up simple statements and give the air of impartiality
• Epoch-making, epic and unforgettable are adjectives that dignify the sordid process of international politics
• Realm, throne, and chariot are words that glorify war
• Cul de sac, ancien regime, and deus ex machina are foreign words that give elegance
• Except for i.e, e.g., and etc., there is no real need for hundreds of foreign phrases
• Bad writers are haunted by the grander notion of Latin or Greek words compared to Saxon ones
• Expedite, ameliorate, and predict are unnecessary words gaining ground from Anglo-Saxon numbers
• Jargon like hyena, hangman, and cannibal are Marxist words translated from other languages
• ize formations come from using Latin or Greek with appropriate affixes
• It is easier to make up words (deregionalize) than to think of English words to get the meaning across
• This results in slovenliness and vagueness

Meaningless Words

• It is normal to see passages almost completely lacking in meaning, especially in art and literary criticism
• Romantic, plastic, values, human, dead, sentimental, natural, and vitality are strictly meaningless in criticism
• Certain political words are abused and Fascism means "something not desirable"
• Democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, and justice have several different meanings
• Democracy has no agreed definition because the attempt is resisted
• People think when calling a country democratic, they are praising it, so defenders of every regime claim it is a democracy
• Words are used in a consciously dishonest way, allowing the hearer to think they mean something quite different
• Terms of variable meaning are class, totalitarian, science, progressive, reactionary, bourgeois, and equality

Example of Swindles and Perversions

• Translation of good English into the worst modern English
• Original verse from Ecclesiastes is about the race not being to the swift
• Modern English translation is "Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.”
• The modern example has much less concise and vivid imagery while giving shortened meaning and gaining ground in modern English
• This occurs because no modern writer would tabulate thoughts in a precise way and this reflects the removal of concreteness from modern writing

Qualities of modern writing

• It does not use words for their meaning to make clear
• It gums together strips of words set in order by someone else and makes results presentable by humbug
• The attraction to this writing is because it is easy and saves mental effort by using stale metaphors

Examples of the bad qualities of modern writing

• Professor Laski uses five negatives in 53 words, and the slip is "alien for akin"
• Professor Hobgen plays ducks and drakes with a battery that writes prescriptions and does not look up the definition of egregious in the dictionary
• Number (3) is simply meaningless, but one might work it out by the article. In (4), the writer knows what he wants to say stale phrases choke him.
• In (5), words and meaning are have parted ways.
• People writing in this manner usually have an emotional meaning (they dislike something and express solidarity), however, they are not interested in the detail

A scrupulous writer will:

• Ask "what am I trying to say?", "what words will express it?", "what image or idiom will make it clearer?", "Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?", "Could I put it more shortly?", "Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?"

Connection between Politics and Language

• In politics, bad writing dominates
• Where political writing is not bad, the writer is some kind of rebel with their opinions
• Orthodoxy demands a lifeless, imitative style for pamphlets, articles, manifestos, White papers, and speeches
• Variation exists between parties, but there is almost never a fresh, vivid turn of speech
• A speaker using the same phrases is a machine
• Their brain is not involved and they are almost unconscious
• This leads to political conformity
• Political speech is defending the indefensible and using euphemism
• Defenseless villages are bombarded, inhabitants are driven out, cattle are machine-gunned, and huts are set on fire: This is called pacification
• Peasants robbed of farms are sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: This is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers
• People imprisoned for years or shot are called elimination of unreliable elements
• Inflated style is euphemism and Latin words blur the facts

Insincerity

• The great enemy of clear language
• When there is an insincerity there is a turn to long words and idioms (like a cuttlefish)
• All issues are political issues and there is a mass of lies
• When it is bad, language suffers and the German, Russian and Italian languages deteriorated because of dictatorship
• Thought corrupts language and bad use can spread even among people who know better

Debased Language

• Convenient
• Phrases like a not unjustifiable assumption, (etc) are a continuous temptation
• The mind is invaded by ready-made phases which can only be prevented when one is constantly on guard, as these anaesthetizes a portion of one's brain
• Decadence of language (is curable but) reflects social conditions, but that can be influenced
• Silly words have disappeared through conscious action
• The not un-formation should be laughed out of existence
• Decrease Latin and Greek
• Drive out scientific words
• Make pretentiousness unfashionable

What Language Defence Implies

• To begin with it has nothing to do with archaism, with the salvaging of obsolete words and turns of speech
• Scrap words that have outworn its usefulness
• Has nothing to do with grammar or syntax as long as meaning is clear
• Or avoid Americanisms or have a ‘good prose style’
• Defence is not concerned with fake simplicity
• Doesn't imply preferring the Saxon word to the Latin one, use the fewest and shortest words to cover one's meaning
• Let the meaning choose the word!
• The worst thing one can do is surrender to words
• Think wordlessly, visualize and hunt for the exact words to describe it
• Get meaning clear as possible through pictures and sensations
• Best cover meaning switch around and decide what impressions
• Strive to cuts out stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases and needless repetitions, humbug and vagueness

Rules

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print
• Never use a long word when a short one will do
• Cut a word out always
• Never use the passive voice
• Don't use foreign phrases and jargon words
• Break these rules than say anything outright barbarous
• Rules may be relied on when instinct fails

Outcomes and Conclusion

• Rules demand a deep change of attitude in anyone writing
• Language is an instrument for expressing, not concealing thought
• Stuart Chase claims all abstract words are meaningless
• Improvement can occur by starting at the verbal end
• One is freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy by simplifying, can't speak any dialects, and a lack of stupidity will be obvious
• Designed to make lies truthful; designed to make murder respectable, and make purity look good
• One can't change wind but own habits, jeer loudly to send phrases to dustbin