The Age of Newspeak and Performative Activism

If we can't even agree on a word's definition, how will we find the right solution to the underlying problem?

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In George Orwell’s novel 1984, the party in charge of a totalitarian dystopia invented a new language called “Newspeak,” in contrast to “Oldspeak,” “or Standard English, as we should call it” (Orwell). Examples of “Newspeak” include deliberately changing the definition of a word, i.e., war is peace and ignorance is strength; or replacing an existing word with a new word, i.e., saying “uncold” instead of “warm.” According to Orwell, the purpose of Newspeak is to “narrow the range of thought.” So, “In the end, we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it."

Orwell’s book was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual. Unfortunately, we are living in the age of Newspeak Orwell alarmed us.

Example #1 “We’re not in a Recession”

I earned my first master's degree in Business Economics at SUNY, Oneonta, in the mid-1990s. I didn't bring this up to brag about myself, only as proof that I learned a thing or two about economics. In all the econ books I read and all the classes I sat through, a recession was always defined as "a period when the economy contracts for two consecutive quarters." That definition hasn't changed since WWII, and not even left-leaning corporate media has disputed that definition. A report from Reuter's in 2020 about the Japanese economy stated, "Japan GDP data shows its economy has sunk into recession, defined as two straight quarters of contraction."