Politics and the English Language

In his guide for submissions, Gregory Reynolds, editor of the OPC's Ordained Servant, links to George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language." It's a fun read, at first because it reminds me how much I really, really love English. But then Orwell's profound and serious anger, his justifiable outrage at all forms of totalitarianism and fascism, draws out the great danger of vaguely constructed writing.

Consider for instance some comfortable English professor defending Russian totalitarianism. He cannot say outright, "I believe in killing off your opponents when you can get good results by doing so." Probably, therefore, he will say something like this:

While freely conceding that the Soviet regime exhibits certain features which the humanitarian may be inclined to deplore, we must, I think, agree that a certain curtailment of the right to political opposition is an unavoidable concomitant of transitional periods, and that the rigors which the Russian people have been called upon to undergo have been amply justified in the sphere of concrete achievement.

The inflated style itself is a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

"Like soft snow." Amazing.

Read it, and be a better writer.