Politics and the English Language

Must we move towards more concise and simplistic phrasing at the risk of losing
all complexity in argument? Upon first reading “Politics and the English Language,” I discovered Orwell to be a very able writer with a lucid style and a very transferable sort of wisdom. However, upon a closer, more focused reading of the essay, I found myself wondering whether modern English would indeed be better off without the metaphors that have defined the political language of our era. Should we never again use the “verbal refuse” that has played so large a role in the construction of politics and modern English as we know it? (637). This essay begs such a question, and our educated response to its frustrated aspirations must be a vehement “no.” Orwell’s answers to the alleged “general collapse” of the English language - while rightly founded in his frustration over totalitarianism - can cover neither the span of modern English nor the entirety of its political functions. Moreover, beyond the blatant oversimplification and screaming assumption in the essay, we must observe Orwell’s own inability to attain to its idealistic standards (626).