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Paperback - 352 pages New Ed edition (3 February, 2000) Penguin Books;
ISBN: 0141182474
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Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell's most well-known novel was written in 1948. Wanting to set it in the future, Orwell changed the final two digits of that year around and called the book Nineteen Eighty-Four. The story takes place in a grey, brutal Britain in which the Party (the Government) constantly watches everyone and at the same time broadcasts nonstop propaganda using wall-mounted cameras, TV screens and speakers from which there is no escape in public or in private. The four departments of government are the ironically-named Ministries of Love, Truth, Plenty and Peace.
Although the year 1984 has come and gone, many terms from the book have made their way into the English Language and are used to refer either to the intrusive use of technology, or to the way that language and information in the media are constantly manipulated to influence the way we behave.
Orwell's name is often used in discussion of these issues, for example in referring to 'the Orwellian world of office surveillance', or in calling computers 'the technology for an Orwellian nightmare.' Similarly, we have 'the Orwellian-sounding Ministry of Information, with broad powers to regulate the media' being set up in Russia.
A well-known TV programme takes its name from Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the book, 'Big Brother is watching you' is the slogan that appears everywhere on posters showing the face of Big Brother, a character used by the Party to portray itself as firm but fair and having everyone's best interests at heart. The name can be used to refer to 'a Big Brother state in which every citizen is recorded on a Whitehall computer', or to call the video surveillance of young children 'bringing Big Brother to the nursery.'
Central to the power of the Party is Newspeak, a simplified version of English designed to eliminate certain ways of speaking and thinking. This term is used to express disapproval, for example of people losing their jobs as a result of 'down-sizing, right-sizing, re-engineering or whatever the latest management newspeak happens to be'. Similarly, mistrust of company jargon is expressed in 'the users of office newspeak are regarded as pretentious or untrustworthy'.
Unquestioning support for the Party calls for doublethink, the ability to hold opposing ideas and believe both of them. The inability to be rational or consistent about one's beliefs is referred to in 'the doublethink and distortion of facts' attributed to the nuclear industry's justification of its safety record, and also in the belief that 'the attempt to limit science to bare facts inevitably produces hypocrisy and doublethink'.
As you might imagine, doublethink calls for doublespeak when communicating with others. Significantly, common varieties referred to include 'bureaucratic doublespeak', 'corporate doublespeak', 'advertising doublespeak' and 'military doublespeak'.
The most feared group in Nineteen Eighty-Four are the Thought Police, who monitor everyone constantly. So, we can have references to 'the politically correct thought police of social services' and in Parliament 'the bully boys and thought police of the Whip's Office'.
Anyone arrested by the Thought Police simply disappears, becoming an unperson. So, it can be said that 'anyone without the right ID in Russia simply becomes an unperson'. Or, following the withdrawal of Gerry Andersons's unsuccessful Radio 4 phone-in programme, 'it's extraordinary how fast one can become an unperson in today's BBC'. You have been warned.
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