Politics In the English Language Response
The article "Politics and the English Language" is an article I had heard much about however never found the time to read. After reading it in class, the first thing that came to mind was all of freshmen year essays where I looked at every word that sounded too casual and jammed it into thesaurus.com to find an alternative.
A large point in the article is about the corruption on the idea of sounding smart and it's affect on the English language. Especially politicians using words that they don't understand in an attempt to sound smarter and more qualified then they actually are. This unfortunately backfires because their audience doesn't know what that 18 syllable word means either. A great example of showing your understanding of a topic is if you can explain it to a child. If you know your topic so well that you can convey it to a child with no problems at all using the most simple language, that could should your qualifications rather than using vocabulary you don't understand. Another major point that Orwell passes to the reader is that many writers use overused sayings, metaphors, and similes. He explains that the more you use it, the more dull it becomes, losing the full meaning and imagery behind the saying. On the other side of this coin, a well thought and put together metaphor can strike the reader where it counts, especially in a persuasive or argumentative article. As Orwell puts it "The result, in general, is an increase in slovenliness and vagueness." Orwell doesn't only target the problems of English but other languages as well such as German, Russian, and Italian dialects seeing as how they have deteriorated in the last 10-15 years as a result of dictatorship. In this article however Orwell does provide a solution. If people including politicians actively resist the urge to add words they don't understand, this could potentially stabilize the current situation that the English language is in reverting it back to it's best form.
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