Link back to commentIt is interesting to read the Appendix to Orwell's 1984 and find that the timetable for implementing Newspeak was 2050, not 1984 which was just the inversion of Orwell's working title 1948 at the insistence of the publisher. So we should not have relaxed our vigilance after 1984, as though we had dodged the bullet and Orwell was refuted. We are still well on track and the pace of implementation is manifestly accelerating. Check it out and be warned! http://orwell.ru/library/novels/1984/english/en_app
The main purpose of Newspeak was to make certain thoughts literally unthinkable for want of the vocabulary to express them or the shift in meaning of terms like freedom to destroy the original meaning. A case in point is the loss of the word disinterested. This is almost universally used or interpreted now to mean not interested or uninterested rather than even handed or open minded. When the word is lost, how to maintain the attitude? Not impossible of course but one of the anchors of the attitude has been cut loose.