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Originally published in the February 6, 2005 issue of the Alamance Independent
Presidential Doublespeak
By Mark Andrew Dwyeramnesty - 2. [n] a warrant granting release from punishment for an offense
(a definition quoted from [1])In his famous novel "1984" (see [2, 3]) that he wrote 1949 in Britain, George Orwell presented his apocalyptic vision of once free Western society
enslaved by its tyrannic government. One of the tools of oppression that Orwell made a central theme of his book was what he called "Newspeak" - a new language imposed by the ruling elite on their subjects in which politically incorrect statements became obviously illogical, impossible to express as a grammatical Newspeak sentence, or otherwise ridiculous. (See the Appendix, below, for an example of Newspeak immigration vocabulary built upon Orwell's ideas.)
A companion tool of oppression for Newspeak in "1984" was "doublethink" that Orwell characterized as "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them". Using doublethink, one could easily accept such nonsense as (quotations from [2]) "war is peace", "freedom is slavery", and "ignorance is strength" (if I were writing "1984" today I would use the slogan "diversity is strength", instead).
Skillful use of Newspeak and doublethink allowed state propaganda, referred to in [2] as Ministry of Truth, tell the people that thanks to splendid job of the Ministry of Plenty, the weekly ration of chocolate was INCREASED from 20 grams a week to 10 grams a week, and no one was able to object it. One of TV viewers commented on that news this way. "The Ministry of Plenty's certainly done a good job this year", he said with a knowing shake of his head. "By the way, Smith old boy, I suppose you haven't got any razor blades you can let me have?" "Not one", said Winston. "I've been using the same blade for six weeks myself." (So much for "plenty".)
More than fifty years after the first release of "1984", it's main message, a warning against totalitarian government that will control citizens' minds by means of a twisted language, haven't lost anything of its currentness. Meanwhile, a new term was coined by Orwell's followers to capture both phenomena, Newspeak and doublethink, in one word "doublespeak" which became quite popular since. It turns out that gradual erosion of individual freedoms, ostensibly for sake of their preservation and protection, is almost entirely the result of doublespeak skillfully used by the American ruling elites to get around the constitutional provisions that were supposed to guard these very freedoms that they encroach.
For years, we have been fed with Orwellian doublespeak. That diversity is strength. That multiculturalism is the best thing that ever happened to the American society. That poor (and mostly illegal) aliens from Third-World countries are the major driving force of American prosperity. But above all others, the politics of surrender to mass invasion of Mexican "migrants" that Washington's (DC) establishment, under the leadership of President Bush, wants to force down our throats against our will and despite government's constitutional duty to protect this country against foreign invasion, is where the doublespeak can be seen in its most obvious and purest form.
Take, for instance, the issue of amnesty. President Bush has emphasized at several occasions that he is firmly opposed to an amnesty for illegal aliens. But that would be true only if one understood an amnesty as an awarding of "automatic citizenship" (Bush's words) to everyone who managed to skip the American border, in the correct direction, of course, or to overstay his visa. What amnesty really means is forgiving someone's criminal violations, usually offered in exchange for offenders' admitting that they actually committed a crime. For instance, an amnesty for common thieves would mean that anyone who stole (but wasn't caught) someone else's property has a certain time window to admit the theft and to return the stolen item (or whatever was left of it) to its rightful owner in exchange for a legal promise of not being prosecuted for his breaking of the law, and, perhaps, a minor punishment like summary probation or a fine.
If one used Bush doublespeak's meaning of "amnesty" (an award of "automatic citizenship" to all border jumpers and visa overstayers in addition to granting release from punishment for violating the border and the immigration law) in a debate about amnesty for common criminals, an amnesty for thieves would allow them to automatically acquire the property rights of all the things they stole, perhaps with proviso that they were otherwise "law abiding" people. President Bush, if he applied his "guest worker" program rhetoric to this case, would argue that he was opposed to that and that he would only offer an impunity to the thieves who came out of the shadow, and that he would just allow them to temporarily keep the property they stole until they had a chance to acquire legal rights to that stolen property.
If the correct legal terminology (not the doublespeak, that is) were used towards illegal aliens, amnesty would mean nothing more than not punishing them for violating the American border and the immigration laws and for being in the U.S. illegally, and allowing them to return promptly to their countries of origin where they could claim (perhaps after paying a fine) their place at the end of queue in which their countrymen were waiting for U.S. immigration visas. So, contrary to what he and his point men say, Bush is actually pushing for much more than the amnesty for illegal aliens (the amnesty plus the right to keep the proceeds of their breaking of the law) even though, at the same time and in the best tradition of doublespeak, he is claiming that he is firmly opposed to the very amnesty that he actually is maneuvering this country into.
President Bush used to have a nickname Dubya ("W", that is), but perhaps calling him "Oh" or President George "O" (like in "Orwell") Bush, instead, would be more indicative of the doublespeak he uses so masterfully while advertising his "guest worker" program. But does he really think that American electorate is not smart enough to see the hollowness of his argument? Because the proposal itself, being indicative of the quality of his entire presidency, can be clearly classified, in Orwellian terms, as extra doubleplusungood, that is, hopelessly flawed (see [4, 5] for my earlier extensive account of its flaws) and totally unacceptable.
APPENDIX
Here is my proposal of immigration Newspeak vocabulary that President Bush and our ruling elites from both parties may find useful while subduing those of us who resist the invasion and giving America away to Mexico.
- badcitizen (replaces "citizen"; see also: "mispatriot")
- economy (replaces "greedy corporations")
- goodaliens (replaces "aliens", particularly "illegal", "undocumented laborers"; see also: "wellmigrants")
- goodneighbor (replaces "neighbor")
- goodpresident (replaces "president" until new elections in 2008)
- mispatriot (replaces "patriot", except in "Patriot Act"; see also: "badcitizen")
- unborder (replaces "border")
- unissue (replaces "issue" in certain contexts, for instance, when it comes to illegals trashing our land and hostilely taking over our country), similar to "unperson" (see [2])
- wellmigrants (replaces "migrants", "immigrants"; currently used substitute: "good people"; see also" "goodalien")
- wrongstop (replaces "stop" in certain contexts)
Examples of correct use
Badcitizens and mispatriots renewed their xenophobic attempts to wrongstop the wellmigration of goodaliens from our goodneighbor, Mexico, by bringing up an unissue of ostensibly "negative effects of wellmigration" (a phrase contradictory in itself). These hate groups of malcontents brought the ludicrousness of their agenda to a recent height when they illogically demanded that Goodpresident Bush enforces the unborder. Goodpresident Bush showed his goodpresidential wisdom by ignoring completely this unissue. He said that wellmigration is extra doubleplusgood for the economy.
Doublethink
" 'There is a word in Newspeak,' said Syme, 'I don't know whether you know it: duckspeak, to quack like a duck. It is one of those interesting words that have two contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it is abuse, applied to someone you agree with, it is praise.' " (Quotation from [2].)
Like "duckspeak" or "pride", "demand" has a double meaning. It has a positive meaning when applied to one's supporters and negative meaning when applied to one's opponents.
Example of doublespeakly use of "demand"
When wellmigrants DEMAND freedom of movement through the unborder (a logical consequence of the U.S. having unborders), subsidies, hiring quota, and political representation, it's automatically doubleplusgood. When badcitizens and mispatriots DEMAND the enforcement of unborder, it's automatically doubleminusbad (or doubleplusungood in original Orwellian Newspeak) in addition to being illogical or even non-grammatical.
[1] Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
(see http://dict.die.net/amnesty/ )[2] Orwell, George, "1984"
(see http://www.liferesearchuniversal.com/orwell.html#1984 )[3] Orwell, George, "The Principles of Newspeak"
An appendix to 1984
(see http://www.liferesearchuniversal.com/appendix1984.html#append )
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