Thursday, March 13, 2003

A to Z of Wartime Newspeak
"Words can be decoys as weapons or their extensions
and are often used as such.
Many are the lethal offspring of an alphabet of anguish,
a lexicon of slanted war speak.
Orwell would have been right at home,
but for the rest of us,
it is often uncomfortable finding these terms
bubbling up almost involuntarily from within.
"News language" has a way of fusing
with our own language in the same way
that babies absorb the lingo,
accents and phrasing of their parents.
What we hear again and again in the media
embeds itself in the inner voice.
We recycle what is repeated.
Pavlov understood this more than Orwell,
but never mind."

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home