Doublespeak

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Did you know that are being lied to every day? Today I am going to tell you how you are being deceived and why you need to do something about it. Every day, on your phone, in articles, watching the news, you are being deceived by doublespeak. What is doublespeak? Doublespeak is a term refined by William Lutz and popularized in the book 1984. The term has been floating around for decades but seeing as William Lutz is the one who refined this abstract term, I will refer to him as the original source. In his book “the New doublespeak” William Lutz defines doublespeak as “Language that pretends to communicate but really doesn’t. It is language that makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant appear attractive or at least tolerable. Doublespeak is language that avoids or shifts responsibility, language that is at variance with its real or purported meaning. It is language that conceals or prevents thought; rather than extending thought, doublespeak limits it.” That’s a lot to take in. Fortunately, he goes on to give us four specific kinds of doublespeak. The first being language that uses soft or more socially accepted terms when dealing with uncomfortable subjects, such as saying someone is big boned or calling a crippled person disabled. The second kind being language special to a certain group of people, like the language doctors use or language based on ethnicity. Now, this inherently is not bad thing, but when it is purposefully used to deceive, then it becomes doublespeak. The third kind of doublespeak is to use words as a kind of impenetrable fog so that no one actually knows what you’re saying. An example being, when Admiral Wesley L. McDonald was questioned as to why U.S. forces lacked intelligence information on Grenada before they invaded the island in 1983, he said “We were not micromanaging Grenada intelligence wise until about that time frame.” Finally, the fourth kind of doublespeak is to say lots of words and using their needless complexity to make something appear important, good, etc. Like calling a lie a political credibility problem, or a tax a passenger facility charge. All this sounds like something out of a dystopian novel, but I regretfully assure you that it is not. There are numerous real life examples of doublespeak with real life consequences. The massacre of May Lai during the Vietnam war, when U.S. Soldiers slaughtered about 500 women, children and old men. When questioned as to why they did this, one soldier famously stated, “It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it”. A new phrase being popularized by the media is the “new normal” which, if you really stop to think about what that means, is doublespeak at its finest. Now, I’m sure we all agree that lies are terrible destructive things, but we may not all agree that the doublespeak infiltrating our culture is dangerous. However, I firmly believe that doublespeak is capable of more damage than any of us can imagine. In order to convince you of the imminent danger we are in I must prove three things. First the importance of words, second the power of words, and finally the danger of words.

First, the importance of words. Clear language is essential for any community or group of people to thrive. Words are the embodiment of our ideas. Expressing our ideas to others in a clear exact way is crucial. Take the Tower of Babel as an example. When God wanted to prevent the peoples from executing their plan what did He do? Strike them down with an almighty thunderbolt? No. He confused their language. This massive, powerful group of people, who were about to reach the heavens, were shut down by something so seemingly small as words. This is why doublespeak is fatal. It corrupts the cornerstone of our society and is slowly but surely destroying it.

Second, the power of words. As said before words are the embodiment of our ideas. Our ideas don’t stay ideas, they manifest themselves into thoughts and thoughts soon become actions. This is what makes language powerful. What we hear, what we feed our brains with will effect our actions, whether we know it or not. When we think of superpowers, we think of teleportation, super strength or controlling the elements. But all these are simply manipulating the elements. I would argue that the power to create is the greatest power there is. When God created the universe, using the greatest power of all, one we cannot even begin to comprehend, He chose to manifest his power it by speaking. Obviously speaking has a greater power then we often stop to recognize. As William Lutz affirms, “Mao Tse-Tung was wrong. Power does not come from the barrel of a gun. Power in modern society resides in language. Therefore those who know how to use language can wield great power.”

Finally, the danger of words. As said before words are extremely powerful. Now if that’s the case why is it that we don’t stop to consider the language that’s being thrown at us from politicians, the media, the world around us? If language truly is one of the greatest powers there is, then it stands to reason that Doublespeak is the greatest weapon to ever exist. This truth is affirmed in scripture. Colossians 2:8 States: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy or empty deceit, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Can we really be taken captive by ideas? YES. The Bible itself testifies to the danger of words. Doublespeak is everywhere, affecting us in almost every sphere of life from the seemingly less important to the most vital. A recent example of doublespeak is when U.S. Attorney Billy Williams was questioned as to what he thought of the “Late night activity” taking place in Portland. What she meant by “late night activity” was the vandalization and violence which took place during a black lives riot. But it would be unprofessional and potentially offensive of her to call the “late night activity” violent or vandalization. When is an invasion not an invasion? When it’s a ‘pre-drawn vertical insertion,” (William Lutz, the new doublespeak). The US invasion of Panama, or as it was called by the Bush administration operation Just Cause, was not an invasion nor a war. According to the official language of government, there was no war in Panama. President Bush “directed armed forces to protect the lives of American citizens in Panama” or sent soldiers to conduct “efforts to support the democratic processes in Panama” There certainly was no war in Panama. As William Lutz puts it “In the nonwar Panamanian soldiers weren’t killed; they were ‘neutralized’. Panamanian soldiers didn’t fight; they engaged in ‘armed terroristic activity.” These examples of doublespeak show how it distorts language and in doing so distorts the truth. By using this great tool to deceive and shake the foundation of our nation to the point where no one knows what anyone is saying anymore, and thus succeeds in its goal of destroying society

However, after all this, there are still many people who aren’t sold on the idea that people actually use doublespeak, or that such a thing even exists. Some people could argue that a bunch of paranoid people labeled proper terms that companies or politicians use and call it “doublespeak” simply because they don’t understand it. I refute this by asking what’s proper about calling a dump a “resource development park” or as Jimmy carter did, call a failure a “incomplete success”? No. These are not words meant to be specific and clarify, but to deceive and distort.

Today I hope to have shown you just how important, powerful, and deadly words are, and that doublespeak is not a conspiracy made up by a bunch of paranoid lunatics, but a real and present danger in our culture. So, what can we do about it? In America we are blessed to be able to speak freely, this is something we need to take advantage of. Something we can do is, if you encounter doublespeak in an article, video etc. re-write it in clear language and post the re-worked version with an explanation as to why you did it. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I thought of actually doing this, doubts instantly filled my mind. It seemed kind of silly who would even see or care about my comments? Who could even take me seriously? But then I stopped and thought about it. While it may seem silly and unimportant to speak out against doublespeak, God can use anything in ways we can’t anticipate. We don’t know for sure if anything will happen if we do, but we can be certain that NOTHING will happen if we don’t.