U. THE REAL EXISTENCE OF DOUBLESPEAK

Here's another language problem. One thing that makes the Truth hard to get to sometimes is the use of language that pretends to communicate but actually doesn't. It is language that is really designed to mislead...

George Orwell looked ahead to the future. Writing in the year 1948, he imagined a future with that number reversed, which became one of our great novels: 1984. In it he wrote about a world in which words were used as propaganda, such as "Doublethink." Sometimes journalists have spoken of "Newspeak", deliberately ambiguous and contradictory language used to mislead and manipulate the public. A contemporary group of English teachers have combined these terms to into "Doublespeak". Every year they collect examples of doublespeak from all over the world. They point out advertisers who boast of "genuine imitation leather," used car dealers who sell "preowned cars," or politicians who who talk about "revenue enhancement" rather than raising taxes. In the actual year 1984 they gave the U.S. State Department their "Doublespeak Award" which called attention to dishonest and inhumane use of language.

Running man or dog?
Doublespeak is language which pretends to communicate, language which misleads, misrepresents, avoids responsibility, tries to make the bad look good, or at least tolerable. Think of referring to a toilet as a "powder room." But there is doublespeak even more extreme.

Many examples can be found in the military where the word "peacekeeper" describes a nuclear missile. It reminds me of when the term "pre-dawn vertical insertion" was used by the Pentagon to describe the US invasion of Granada.

Consider the legal term "involuntary conversion" used by an airline to describe the crash of an airliner, an "involuntary conversion of a 727", which is a nice way of saying the plane crashed. Doublespeak can even be used to describe a job, like the way a hospital in Philadelphia called their elevator operators their "Vertical Transportation Corps".

Some doublespeak is very obvious, but it can also be very subtle so when reading or hearing the arguments or descriptions of some people we need to be on guard against being misled by the language. It may be natural for all of us to downgrade the people or the opinions we oppose. The people opposed to abortion refer to those who favor a woman's choice as "pro-abortion," which is misleading. "Pro-choice" people (which is how they prefer to call themselves), acknowledge the tragedy of abortion, but also acknowledge he possibility of a greater tragedy in some cases in carrying a baby to full term. People who opposed the unregulated investigation and castigation of some people because of their involvement in social action were called "pro-communist" for similar manipulative reasons.

Ernest Hemingway gave us some good counsel which I'll pass on to you, vis: "Everyone needs to be equipped with a "built in, shock-proof crap detector."

A question worth your asking might be: "Applying your own crap detector to what you're hearing or reading these days, where do you think maybe you've found it?

Here are a few more head-spinning examples of human creativity in avoiding clarity:

• The Transportation Safety Board's reference to airplane crashes as "controlled flights into terrain"

• The Pentagon's reference to peace as "permanent pre-hostility."

• The Treasury department, always searching for ways to avoid saying "tax increase" has coined the phrase "tax base erosion control."

•  Those opposed to labor unions support what they call "Right to work" laws, which really means the right to take jobs that offer poor wages and no benefits.

• When Proctor and Gamble fired 9600 people they referred to it as their "Overall Plan to Restore Competitiveness and Growth."

• When Cisco Systems dropped 3200 jobs they preferred to speak of it as the company's "involuntary normal attrition."

• But the prize goes to the State Department for speaking of killing as "neutralizing".


EXTENDED READING IF YOU'RE INTERESTED: George Orwell's novel, 1984, for many other reasons as well.


TOOLS AND APPROACHES - U

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