"Don't you see that the whole aim of newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? ... Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined..." (Orwell, 52).
I think this is the most obvious and succinct proposal of the Party's goals. They have worked to control all other aspect of the comrades' lives, and now they wish to fully control all thoughts as well. There will not even be an element of "hiding" unwelcome thoughts from the party, because no one will have the capacity to think those thoughts because they will not exist. With Newspeak, the Party is not simply creating a new language; they are eradicating concepts and ideas which they do not like from the syntax. By creating new words which they define, and throwing out all the old words, they can control every thought and method of communication, because the only things that can be expressed will have already been approved by the Party.
Personally, I think this method is horrific, but brilliant. There is no way to have radicals and revolutionaries if the very seeds of rebellion planted in their heads simply do not exist. The Party has effectively eliminated all methods of conflict within their "kingdom". I believe that is what the Party fears the most. They put all of these restrictions and plans in place simply so that the governed will not wise up to the world around them, and try to change it. They recognize the power of a small group of people with an agenda who can strong arm others. They use this idea, in fact, in their creation of the thought police.
No comments:
Post a Comment