The destruction of language and the past can be used as tools to manipulate the minds of people in numerous ways. When we are not paying close enough attention, we can become slaves to our environment. Through all of our media sources and various propaganda techniques, it is not hard to get sucked into a new mindset that is completely out of your control. In George Orwell's novel, 1984, and several other sources, the destruction of language and the past is shown very clearly. One of the most common but not always the most obvious ways that the minds of people can be manipulated is through propaganda techniques. In an essay written by Donna Woolfolk Cross, propaganda is defined as a means of persuasion. According to Cross’s essay, “propaganda …show more content…
pervades our daily lives, helping to shape our attitudes on a thousand subjects.” (“Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled”, page 209) Often times propaganda is used in almost every aspect of our lives. There are several types of propaganda that Donna Cross identifies, such as name calling, glittering generalities, argumentum ad hominem, faulty cause and effect, and the bandwagon. If we look close enough we can see how much these propaganda techniques have control over our lives. As Donna Cross says, “if we are to be led, let us not be led blindly, but critically, intelligently, with our eyes open.” (“Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled” page 219) Furthermore, fear is a driving force in manipulating minds. In the novel 1984, Winston and the rest of Oceania are not able to think for themselves or formulate their own opinions. They are forced to live in a world where everything that they believe is already decided for them. For example, if they had any bad thoughts against the party, it was considered a thought crime with harsh punishments. The novel states, “Thought crime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.” (George Orwell, 1984 page 19) . They had no choice but to believe that the past has changed. Even as young children, citizens are taught to obey the party. To illustrate, one of Mrs. Parson’s children yelled at Winston, “you're a thought criminal! You're a Eurasian spy! I'll shoot you, I'll vaporize you, I'll send you to the salt mines.” ( George Orwell, 1984 page 23) Fear can make anyone cower and obey, even if deep down they know what is actually true. Last, manipulation can come from various outside forces such as what we read and watch on television, to conversations in our everyday lives.
Serval media outlets have the power to make us feel and think in different ways. One source has stated, “television is psychologically addictive” ( Ballard, M. Russell. "The Effects of Television.") Surely anything with that label could have the power of getting us to think one way and one way only. Having a person on the fence about any topic could create too much division and cause revolts. What we watch on television can easily corrupt our minds. In George Orwell's essay, he explains how dying metaphors are used without knowledge of their meaning. He states, “Some metaphors now current have been twisted out of their original meaning without those who us the, even being aware of the fact.” (“Politics and the English Language”, George Orwell page 237). This shows manipulation of our language that is being used by everyday people just like us. Being able to twists what we watch and read on a daily basis is a simple task. Our language is changing constantly without our knowledge. We can easily fall into the …show more content…
trap. While I agree with the fact that our minds can be manipulated by the destruction of language and the past, I can see where this seems impossible.
Some may say that the human race as a whole is advanced enough to not let our minds be controlled by any outside forces. When you think about how advanced we have become over the years, it seems impossible for us to become brainwashed by anyone or anything. Any destruction of the past or our language does not seem to be able to have a strong enough pull on us. How are we not aware that we are being controlled? In conclusion, it is important for citizens to be aware of what is going on on the world. When we are not paying attention, that's when most of the big changes happen. If we are educated on the various types of propaganda and the techniques used by writers and producers, then we can be more proactive in what gets done. The most important thing is to not let ourselves be tricked into a new version of our current reality. As George Orwell states, “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak
it.” Works cited: Ballard, M. Russell. "The Effects of Television." M. Russell Ballard. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2017. Donna Woolfolk Cross, “Propaganda: How Not Be Be Bamboozled” essay 19 Dec. 2017. George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” 19 Dec. 2017 Orwell, George. 1984. N.p.: Publisher Not Identified, 2016. Print.
Media, the plural form of medium, describes various ways in which we communicate in society. A phone call, email, radio, computer, news on TV, etc. are all forms of media. In our society today, the media plays a significantly large role in influencing society negatively, twisting one’s perspective of the truth. In author Brooke Gladstone’s, The Influencing Machine, she discusses how media is looked at as an “influencing machine,” that’s controlling the mind of its viewers. Throughout the reading, Gladstone guides her readers through perceptions of media and how it influences them to get readers to understand the truth about media and the manipulation behind it.
Diction: While George Orwell used fairly simple and uncomplicated diction to tell the story many of his words still have a very powerful diction. In the first chapter the protagonist Winston is attack by the smell of “boiled cabbage and old rag mats”. This is the first indication to the nature of the living conditions of our protagonist. However, Orwell also uses his diction to create the atmosphere of Oceania with lines like “the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no colour in anything”. These lines contain powerful words like cold, torn, and harsh and these worlds help paint the picture of what kind of story we are reading.
Many people can relate to receiving an essay paper back in which they believe that the grading is unfair. Grammatical errors, style, and subject are areas that receive the most attention. However, it may not be the writers’ work that is ineffective, maybe it 's the English language itself that is lacking in quality. Similarly, George Orwell in " Politics and the English Language" convinces the audience that the causes of the decline in the English language are the vagueness and meaningless of prose that is receiving impact from political jargon. Orwell effectively persuades the readers by addressing opposing views, providing examples that offer support to sub-claims, and creating reader connections while simultaneously
Propaganda is information that is biased to promote one point of view. Propaganda is mostly used during political campaigns. It is one of the most widely used and effective political tactics. It gives its user the opportunity to move people to action in both positive and negative ways, by either bringing fame or shame to a selected person or idea. Propaganda is used to sell a candidate or a belief to the public, by ruining the opponent’s chances of winning, or by falsely advertising an idea of their own as better than one of their opponents.
An Analysis of George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” (1946). Orwell’s article on the English language is on point because it defines how people have become lazy in how they communicate with each other. This type of “slovenliness” is part of the problem in terms of why the English language is often misused by the speaker: “The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts” (Orwell para.2). Due to the speaker’s laziness, the language becomes confused, and the person begins having “foolish thoughts” that do not have very good accuracy. This mental process is one way that Orwell defines the importance of language as a tool for clarity of thought, which is important when conveying a message to another person or group of people.
The base of all propaganda is to shape the information in such a manner that it manipulates the viewers into believing what the propaganda wants them to believe. Its persuasive techniques are regularly applied in day-to-day life by politicians, advertisers, journalists, and others who are interested in influencing human behavior. Since propaganda is used with misleading information, it can be concluded that it is not a fairly used tool in the society.
This collective whole is easily controlled and manipulated. Society has always been troubled by the idea of overpowering control. In George Orwell's 1984, humanity is dominated by an extreme government whose intent is to abolish all aspects of freedom. Orwell indicates that when subjected to mass propaganda and intimidation, the ignorant majority’s memory and concept of truth are distorted, making them extremely malleable and subservient. The Party employs slogans to convince the ignorant that what they want is what they already have.
What does the word propaganda really mean? For most of us we assume that it is a word for negativity use. Just to assure those that think of propaganda as a negative word. Propaganda does have a positive objective if used correctly. The word propaganda is defined in a few different ways, But in the most general usage, it varies from bad to good persuasion of our minds. It is used during election time to our daily lives on television to our newspaper stands. According to Donna Cross’s essay, “Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled,” there are thirteen different types of propaganda; this paper will discuss six varieties. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney used primarily every sort of propaganda to influence the citizens; therefore, our national society needs to develop awareness in the propaganda used by such politicians so that they can make wise decisions intelligently.
“Propaganda means any attempt to persuade anyone to a belief or to form an action. We live our lives surrounded by propaganda; we create enormous amounts of it ourselves; and we f...
Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, showcases a world alternate from ours, a dystopian setting. Where human morals are drastically altered, families, love, history, and art are removed by the government. They used multiple methods to control the people, but no method in the world state is more highly used and more effective than propaganda. The world state heavily implemented the use of propaganda to control, to set morals, and to condition the minds of every citizen in their world. However such uses of propaganda have already been used in our world and even at this very moment. The way the media sways us how to think or how we should feel about a given situation. Often covering the truth and hiding the facts. One of the goals in propaganda is to set the mindset of the people to align with the goal of a current power, such as a
... Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia 1500 to the Present. ABC-CLIO. 2003. Google Books. Web.12 April 2011.
In the book, Propaganda, author Edward L Bernays, who is nephew of Sigmund Freud, transcends the public relation industry. This short, 13-part instructional manual delves deep into the intricacies and usage of propaganda. Bernays claims that the public is in a constant state of manipulation. He argues that in order for a society to be highly functioning and stable, public opinion must be manipulated and swayed. While I find his claims disturbing, it was refreshing to read something so blunt. Bernays’ use of psychological techniques to work the mechanics of public opinion truly classifies him as the “father of public relations.”
In the essay “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell, the author states his opinion of the decline of the English language. Orwell discusses both its causes and what he foresees as its consequences. He states there is less innovation and coherency, which dilutes the power of the language. Orwell felt that people were using the English language inaccurately, relying on metaphors which are meaningless and used so the writer does not have to bother with creating their phrases. Orwell asserted “It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
Popular British writer and journalist George Orwell argues in his short essay Politics and the English Language, about the prose and writing styles of the politicians and other literary individuals in his time, many of whom which relied heavily on Modern English of the time period. This type of English was dependent upon fancy terms and phrases, which were heavily used to help politicians in getting people to support their cause. He argues that the politicians and the literary figures of his time are ultimately destroying the English language, while believing they are improving it greatly. Politicians who use Modern English greatly corrupt the language as a whole by making their ideas more complex and disorganized, making their original idea unrecognizable. Orwell claims that the use of fancy words and phrases could be crippling to the foundation of the English language. With Orwell’s life experiences described in his essay Why I Write, he is able to see past the weak persuasive rhetoric used by literary figures and can strongly criticize their speech and writing styles without fear of retaliation. By using examples of other writers work and his own personal thoughts about the correct use of language, Orwell clearly argues his position of improving the flaws of the English language to make it better for all of society. His ideals can be highly understood, even in modern society where people fully believe that making their own contribution to the English language is necessary and they unknowingly begin a grammatical whirlwind that is beneficial to no one.
Language is a vital key to humans all throughout the world and in constant change, never still. One cannot argue language does not influence daily decisions while it is also a powerful tool, capable of doing anything. In retrospect, whoever beholds the correct authority over language ultimately possesses power over the people. Multiple different tactics of language are put to use in order to achieve certain objectives, whether the manipulation comes from social media, propaganda, or even fear, it hides behind the deception. Within George Orwell’s book,1984, and Saul Alinsky's opinionated statement,“ he who controls the language controls the masses” demonstrates prodigious illustrations of how language morphs to one's advantage.