Euphemism
George Orwell criticized the use of euphemism by the politicians. He reveals how politicians used a euphemism to manipulate the public and conceal their main agenda; he also predicted the use of euphemism by some countries to win in times of war. Besides, George also predicts future trends and practices of the English language. He reveals that politicians use long, vague, and meaningless sentences to hide the truth and manipulate people’s reactions to certain events. Politicians can easily manipulate words and sentences to phrase them in a way that it is hard to notice. He says that they often achieved this by making their conversations less detailed and vague. They shape their ideas in a way that the public would not notice their hidden agenda. He says these politicians mainly use misconceptions and imprecise wording to confuse their audience. A closer analysis of today’s terminologies that politicians use during the war and campaign justification of wars proves Orwell’s prediction.
In today’s society, substitution of words is highly used when tackling sensitive topics. People look for milder terms to express their ideas whenever they feel that their words might be offensive. They phrase their sentences in such a way that one could hardly notice what the person is hiding. They make it sound so ordinary. Media plays a major role in manipulating people. They reshape public opinions towards politicians by furnishing their words to make it more confusing. It also covers the cruel reality by using complex communication.
Politicians and media use euphemism to mislead the public and hide the truth. It is more of a propaganda; but the fact that they provide public with less factual information may alter their believes and emotions. For instance, the word collateral damage is often used by government officials to sensitize information.
Work Cited
Spears, Richard A. Slang and euphemism. Signet Book, 1981.
Rodríguez González, Félix. “Euphemism and political language.” (1992).
Mihas, Elena. “Non-literal language in political discourse.” Workshop In General Linguistics (WIGL), UW-Madison. 2005.