Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?…The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
This quote, from George Orwell’s 1984, outlines the somewhat menacing, but inherent connection between language, thought and politics. The novel predicts the effects of a lexicon dictated by a powerful elite, and what that would mean for the population; i.e. obedience and ignorance in equal measure and to the greatest degree.
The concept of linguistic determinism or linguistic relativity – where language directly impacts thought – is based in a whole history of linguistic and cognitive science. Whereas previous theories focused on the semantic structure of different languages, attributing this to the formation of different world views by the speakers, the latest work has appreciated the importance of the socio-cultural context of human development. Interpretive differences can be rooted as much in the systematic uses of language as in its structure. In essence, language, while sharing a common base with every other language, has cultural nuances that impact on a speaker’s perception of the world in certain respects. Such claims should be used not to argue in favour of mind-control by the media, or but to give greater weight to the significance of rhetoric, which has been understood since Aristotelian times to be a powerful tool in politics.
Orwell was concerned not only with the impact of language, but the way that it could be controlled by powerful groups. So, where does power lie when it comes to distributing media and ideology in our society? Benjamin Ginsberg used a powerful analogy between free-market economics and the ‘marketplace of ideas’;
Western governments have used market mechanisms to regulate popular perspectives and sentiments. The ‘marketplace of ideas’ ... effectively disseminates the beliefs and ideas of the upper classes while subverting the ideological and cultural independence of the lower classes... In the United States, in particular, the ability of the upper and upper-middle classes to dominate the marketplace of ideas has generally allowed these strata to shape the entire society’s perception of political reality and the range of realistic political and social possibilities. While westerners usually equate the market place with freedom of opinion, the hidden hand of the market can be almost as potent an instrument of control as the iron fist of the state.
The journalistic apparatus, in short, works in a way to perpetuate particular class interests. According to Chomsky, the major media are essentially ‘corporations “selling” privileged audiences to other businesses.’ Consequently, the worldview they present reflects the perspectives and interests of the sellers, and this apparatus is maintained by journalists pressured to conform to these ideological pressures, in order to make their way in the business. Furthermore, when it comes to controversial issues such as war, democracy, terrorism, journalists are under pressure to remain within accepted realms; conscious of the potential permanence a ‘bad name’ can have.
Turning to state-controlled media; if we look at the journalistic set up of Iraq during the invasion, there were 700 journalists in-bedded into the military apparatus; resulting in ‘officially-inspired’ news. If they become critical of a particular general, or a member of the pentagon or so forth they will lose their sources; by getting in-bed with the military, journalists give complete power to them in deciding, where they go, how they get there and what they see. As a result, at home the invasion was seen as a vindication. The bringing down of the statue of Hussein became an icon of the freeing of the Iraqi people, despite the fact that the order to do so was given by a US soldier. This fact was never reported. The point I am trying to make by providing this example is that even with this highly charged, and controversial political event; one that has defined a generation, our newsfeed was being controlled by the very elite we should be examining and scrutinising.
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