George W. Bush and Bad Language

George Orwell was an English author, best known for his novels, Nineteen-Eighty-Four, and Animal Farm. Orwell used his work to raise political questions. In his essay “Politics and the English Language”, Orwell questions the authenticity of the English language. According to Orwell, the English language has become “ugly and inaccurate, because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” He believes that this is the reason why we buy into foolish ideas and dishonest politics. Orwell thinks that contemporary writers are vague and incompetent. He goes on to say that bad language is used to manipulate political ideas. I see a lot of the type of bad language that Orwell is referring to in the Bush Presidency.

According to Orwell, bad language stems from either the person not saying what they mean or the person does not know what they are talking about, or the person does not know how to say what they mean. In the case of President Bush I think the first two applies. He doesn’t mean what he says and sometimes he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Using bad language, the President started a war with a country that didn’t attack America, legalized discrimination against homosexuals, and appointed extremely conservative judges in the Supreme Court.

Bush often uses language to hide his meanings and intentions rather then say them. For instance, Bush uses two of Orwell’s meaningless words, democracy and freedom. According to Orwell, these words are meaningless because they have a variety of definitions. Bush uses the word freedom a lot a lot because it’s so symbolic to Americans. No American is against freedom and liberty. The word freedom is misleading because of its variable meanings. America has been had puzzling definitions for the word through its history. Freedom has been a truth for many Americans and a cruel joke for others.

Orwell also says that the person who uses meaningless words is being consciously dishonest, which is the case when looking at the reasons for the War in Iraq. The Bush administration manipulated language to shape public thoughts on the war in Iraq. Words like democracy, freedom, and patriotism also evoke emotional responses, especially due to September 11th. Bush claimed that “Al-Qaeda was in Iraq”, when in fact Al-Qaeda didn’t come to Iraq until the United-States did. Bush used words that would stir up fear in the public, such as “weapon of mass destruction” and “evil-doers”. He actively uses these words knowing the public’s fear and anxiety after the attacks on September 11th. Using “slovenly” language the Bush administration has been able to avoid taking accountability and responsibility for the war.

President Bush’s manipulation of language isn’t the only reason that Americans bought into the war in Iraq. The American public is easily fooled by this kind of language because they make it easy. Americans don’t educate themselves on issues and rely on the mainstream media for information. Instead of being told by the mainstream media