Lies, damned lies and language

Every now and then a political word loses all meaning and gets laughed out of use. It happened recently to “freedom”, so overused by George W Bush that in the end it simply came to mean anything he supported. “Family values”—for 20 years a handy phrase with which to harass gays, single mothers and Bill Clinton—faded away as politicians noticed that ever fewer voters lived in traditional families.

George Orwell, in his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language (just 13 pages long, yet the complete guide on how to write), lists some other “worn-out and useless” words and phrases that were disappearing: jackboot, Achilles’ heel, hotbed, melting pot, acid test, veritable inferno. Political language, writes Orwell, “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” He believed that bad language stopped people from thinking clearly. With a new political season about to start, it is a good time to get rid of another batch of bogus words and phrases:

The American people. Used in political argument as a proxy for the speaker himself: “The American people want . . . ”

Austerity. Chosen by Merriam-Webster dictionary editors as “word of the year” for 2010, due to a sharp rise in the number of people seeking a definition on its website. The word appeals to politicians because it has connotations of virtue. “Austerity” evokes monastic ascetics who shun worldly goods.

In real life, “austerity” (or “belt-tightening” or, in the US, “small government”)

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