George Orwell proclaimed “newspeak” in the totalitarian
future foreseen in his classic 1984.
Newspeak, of course, would reflect the transformation of language into words
that sound great but which are really equivocations covering up the truth.
Well, has anyone noticed?
We seem to have blown right past 1984 into our own dystopia
in American political speech today.
Not so long ago, for example, we were told by the House
majority leader at the time that “we must pass the bill so you can find out
what’s in it.” She referred to the contentious Affordable Care Act. It
eventually passed, and we are still being surprised at what is in it, not to
mention how unaffordable it is for many.
Politicians have always had singular ways of speaking. John
F. Kennedy would say, “Let me be crystal clear.” Ronald Reagan had a knack for leavening
even the most contentious political situation with good humor and a warm smile.
And then there was Richard Nixon. “I was not lying,” he
said. “I said things that later on seemed to be untrue.” Thus was born today’s
PolitiSpeak, which is now giving “newspeak” a run for its money.
Today we have shortened Nixonian rhetoric considerably. We
approach Orwellian dystopia every day when we say a bald-faced lie was just a “lack
of transparency.” Or when the Vice President admits that he “misspoke” about
something, and the newsies write he “walked his statement back.” Really? Walked
it back to where? The truth, per chance?
And then we have “the gaffe.” It’s everywhere in today’s
PolitiSpeak. So much so that some DC wags have said that a politician’s gaffe
is really just too much like the truth.
Was that the case when one Jonathan Gruber, an architect of
Obamacare, and an MIT economist who should have known better, said that the
health bill deliberately lacked “transparency” because of “the stupidity of the
American voter”?
And he went on to call us “stupid” more than once.
The arrogance is appalling – all the more when you consider that many in our midst understand
language that “sounds good” to be good. Maybe that’s why we have a few million
“undocumented” or “unauthorized” immigrants among us today, and we can’t figure
out what to do with them … short of admitting that they are here illegally.
Still, there is “lingering debate,” folks speak “on
condition of anonymity” with “varying degrees of enthusiasm” while “drafting
errors” are supposed to excuse sloppy legislative writing.
And so it goes. Lies and innuendo covered over by clever
rhetoric.
But our clever rhetoric that sounds so good falls far short
of Biblical truth: “…let your ‘Yes’ be
yes and your ‘No’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.” (James
5:12b, NRSV)
