Presidential Double Speak, Orwell Would Be Proud

Obama hides the truth in Orwellian double-speak

The world is a complex place. It doesn’t have to be.

It’s made even more complex by people who twist words and phrases to mean something different or to create whole new ways of expressing a simple idea so that people believe the opposite of what was actually said. Confused? That’s the point.

Hmmm. Sounds like today’s Legislative Acts, often referred to as “law”.

That’s right, law is what is right and wrong clearly expressed addressing the harm, or threat of harm, to a human or property.

Whereas, Legislative Acts are politically motivated public policy that have the “force of law” (which is a cute way of saying: it’s not law but we will use force to enforce it as if it were law).

Lawyers are well known for twisting and hiding the truth in a maze of words meant to confuse, overwhelm and hide the truth. They even have a couple of terms for it “legalese” and “word magic” (see below).

Here’s a clip from The Daily Show where Jon Stewart points out and translates the latest double speak from Obama (double speak is a term coined by George Orwell in his book 1984, a chilling foretelling of things to come, we are there now, written in 1949, see below)

Watch the video clip – 54sec. Obama-tax-double-speak

Legalese – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalese#Legalese

Legalese is an English term first used in 1914 for legal writing that is designed to be difficult for laymen to read and understand, the implication being that this abstruseness is deliberate for excluding the legally untrained and to justify high fees. Legalese, as a term, has been adopted in other languages. Legalese is characterized by long sentences, many modifying clauses, complex vocabulary, high abstraction, and insensitivity to the layman’s need to understand the document’s gist. Legalese arises most commonly in legal drafting, yet appears in both types of legal analysis. Today, thePlain Language Movement in legal writing is progressing and experts are busy trying to demystify legalese.

George Orwell’s book “1984” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(Book)

Orwell’s book “1984” is about an oligarchical, collectivist society, engaged in a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control.

The individual is always subordinated to the state, and it is in part this philosophy which allows the Party to manipulate and control humanity. In the Ministry of Truth, protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party’s propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient and always correct.

The individual is always subordinated to the state, and it is in part this philosophy which allows the Party to manipulate and control humanity. In the Ministry of Truth, protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party’s propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient and always correct.

Many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, and Memory hole, have become contemporary words used today.

Do you have other examples of double speak? Leave a comment below!