But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better. The debased language that I have been discussing is in some ways very convenient. Phrases like a not unjustifiable assumption, leaves much to be desired, would serve no good purpose, a consideration which we should do well to bear in mind, are a continuous temptation, a packet of aspirins always at one's elbow. Look back through this essay, and for certain you will find that I have again and again committed the very faults I am protesting against. By this morning's post I have received a pamphlet dealing with conditions in Germany. The author tells me that he "felt impelled" to write it. I open it at random, and here is almost the first sentence I see: "[The Allies] have an opportunity not only of achieving a radical transformation of Germany's social and political structure in such a way as to avoid a nationalistic reaction in Germany itself, but at the same time of laying the foundations of a co-operative and unified Europe." You see, he "feels impelled" to write -- feels, presumably, that he has something new to say -- and yet his words, like cavalry horses answering the bugle, group themselves automatically into the familiar dreary pattern. This invasion of one's mind by ready-made phrases (lay the foundations, achieve a radical transformation) can only be prevented if one is constantly on guard against them, and every such phrase anaesthetizes a portion of one's brain.
George OrwellEl poder no es un medio, sino un fin en sí mismo. No se establece una dictadura para salvaguardar una revolución; se hace la revolución para establecer una dictadura.
George OrwellTo these people the war is simply a continuous calamity which sweeps to and fro over their bodies like a tidal wave. Which side is winning is a matter of complete indifference to them. They are aware that a change of overlordship means simply that they will be doing the same work as before for new masters who treat them in the same manner as the old ones.
George OrwellTag: class-division
This is war! Isn't it bloody?
George Orwellوربما لم يكن الناس يبحثون عن شيء للتغني به إلا حينما يصبحون على شفير الموت جوعا.
George Orwellكانت الطبقة الوسطى تشعل الثورات تحت ستار المساواة، ولكنها لم تلبث بعد بلوغ مأربها أن دشنت لطغيان جديد تقيمه على أنقاض الطغيان القديم.
George Orwellوكان الناظر إليها يخامره شعور بأنها ستكون راضية كل الرضا لو أن أمسية حزيران هذه قد امتدت بلا نهاية ولو أن ما لديها من ثياب مغسولة لا ينفذ حتى تظل على حالها هذه لألف عام تعلق فيها حفاظات الأطفال وتردد الأغنيات التافهة.
George OrwellThe most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
George OrwellTag: history rewriting-history propaganda
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As a boy, it occurred to me, all people over 40 had seemed to me just worn-out old wrecks, so old that there was hardly any difference between them. A man of 45 had seemed to me older than this old dodderer of 65 seemed now. I was 45 myself. It frightened me.
George OrwellThey were a bit shaken, and sometimes a little dispirited. But at least they never lived to know that everything they’d believed in was just so much junk. They lived at the end of an epoch, when everything was dissolving into a sort of ghastly flux, and they didn’t know it. They thought it was eternity. You couldn’t blame them. That was what it felt like.
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