Not one to be discouraged by the fact that Orwell said this shit decades about, Robert Fisk has written a rant about modern language/jargon for The Independent. It's an entertaining read, quite witty and fairly relevant. This current in human communication began with euphemism: "passing away" instead of "dying"; "letting you go" instead of "firing you"; "bowel movement" instead of "Paul Henry commenting on aid workers" - all attempts to skirt around issues that, while understood by all involved, people didn't want to think about too directly. That capacity in language for saying things that are true, while signifying something subtly different, makes spin particularly effective.

Politicians especially have made an artform out of giving answers to questions without actually answering the question. I'm reminded of the principal of Patea Area School telling me about her students talking to [then Minister of Education] Trevor Mallard about plans to close their school. She praised these teenagers for their insight when they commented that Mallard was very friendly and talked to them for some time, but on later reflection they realised he never really answered their questions.

Fisk's article comes across partly as a complaint about political correctness, which itself is a wonderful example of a term that has a meaningfulness feel about it (akin to Stephen Colbert's truthiness) often without really meaning anything. In this case, though, the term is applicable - according to its dictionary definition: the careful avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude or insult groups of people. He mentions that, when wished a "happy holiday" at Christmas time, he roared back, "Happy Christmas!"

I would contend that it's supposed to be "merry Christmas" and "happy New Year", but I'm just a contentious kinda guy.

This particular example - "happy holiday" - represents a bloated non-issue close to the hearts and minds of conservative Americans, the so-called War on Christmas. Drooling commentators like Bill O'Reilly make a living from encouraging the belief that secularising religious holidays (separation of mosque and state stuff) is reflective of an anti-Christian, probably Communist conspiracy to persecute Christians. But while they're all batshit insane, I share part of the sentiment - who fucking cares if a sign says "merry Christmas"? But then again, who fucking cares if they don't?

Euphemisms, (actual) political correctness and public relations (a euphemism for propaganda) all represent three strains of the same aspect of language: the ability to use words to avoid talking about something. It's not an inherently evil aspect. Though one can argue that "nigger" and "African American" both refer to the same person, the connotations differ such that it's just plain polite to use the latter. Similarly, if a loved one has just died, it's just plain polite to avoid addressing the event in mentioning it - if being blunt is likely to cause distress. An awful lot of what's called "political correctness" can be stated a bit more bluntly itself: not being a cunt.

Still, being aware of this aspect of language is important. To those unaware, this environment of half-truths and non-statements is invisible, and so they can be manipulated by skilled rhetoric.

Back to Fisk, perhaps he should have reread his copy of Orwell's Politics and the English Language: