At the present time we are seeing an Orwellian level of abuse of language in our social and political debates, in particular employed by so called ‘progressive’ and leftist social reformers.
Gay or same-sex marriage is rebranded as “marriage equality.”
A purportedly anti-bullying program for school children which is really intended to bring about social change according to queer and radical gender theory is called ‘Safe Schools’.
In reality, same-sex marriage has nothing to do with ‘equality’, and likewise, the Safe Schools program is not really about making schools ‘safe’. But by claiming these labels for themselves, they shield these social programs from further examination and critique.
This abuse and appropriation of language makes it all but impossible to have a reasoned and respectful debate on many important issues. For who can disagree with the assertion that marriage should be ‘equal’ or that schools should be ‘safe’? What is implied is that only someone bad or mad would attempt to do so. And by claiming these labels, they mask the actual objectives of these programs.
Not only does the appropriation of language block critique, it provides the ready made bullets to fire at; to bully and slander and defame anyone who would dare to do so.
Last night, when questioned on the ABC’s Q&A on the age appropriateness of certain material used in the Safe Schools Coalition program, and the raising of concerns about the lack of parental knowledge and consent, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews simply replied: “the project works.”
Indeed Premier, the project does work. It works very well, not in making schools safer but indoctrinating children into a brave new world of sex and gender theory and practice. It works in teaching little boys to pretend they are little girls, and little girls how to shun their bodies, bind their breasts and imagine that they are boys. ‘Safe Schools’ further resource material also teaches children how to conceal their internet history from their parents. Now all of this doesn’t actually sound very children friendly, let alone safe. But if you call it ‘safe’, those who do not delve below the surface will take it at its ‘word’, and will never actually know.
This abuse of language by progressive social reformers is right out of the book of political despotism – that is, George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four which was published in 1949 and concerned a fictional future Dystopia. In the book, the totalitarian regime of Oceania systematically introduces a new language which it calls “newspeak” in order to control the thinking of the people. The ultimate aim of newspeak being to render thinking outside prescribed speech and state edicts impossible.
In Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, the totalitarian regime of Oceania exercised control through four state departments: delving below the surface, the Ministry of Peace serves to keep Oceania in a perpetual state of war. The Ministry of Love is responsible for torturing and imprisoning “thought” criminals and other dissenters. The Ministry of Plenty keeps the people in a perpetual state of poverty. And the Ministry of Truth is charged with manufacturing truth and falsifying of events in order to keep the populace under a perpetual state of deception.
It is frightening to consider how prophetic Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four has been. The same abuse of language, the introduction of “newspeak”, the misnomers and the manufacture of “truth” in spite of reality is happening right now. And so now, brand any speech deemed to be outside newspeak as “hate speech”, “bigoted” or “homophobic”, etc and voilà.
Orwell was correct in large measure: Control the language, and you go a long way in controlling the thoughts of the people. And it is precisely these tactics which are being employed by certain actors in our very real political context right now.
Photo by TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³ 