WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
The government apparatus is described in the novel in the following terms:
They were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided. The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs.
- George Orwell, 1984, Part 1, Chap. 1
This is an example, in Orwell's novel, of how words are used to signify the opposite of what they mean in normal conversation. The words are redefined to mean their opposites. This is what I refer to as Orwellian rhetoric—the deceptive use of language to conceal the true agenda of those who speak the words.
In his essay Politics and the English Language, Orwell describes the current state of English prose, especially with reference to politics, as follows:
Each of these passages has faults of its own, but quite apart from avoidable ugliness, two qualities are common to all of them. The first is staleness of imagery; the other is lack of precision. The writer either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not. This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing. As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of WORDS chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of PHRASES tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house.
Orwell goes on to talk about semantics as follows:
Many political words are similarly abused. The word FASCISM has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something not desirable." The words DEMOCRACY, SOCIALISM, FREEDOM, PATRIOTIC, REALISTIC, JUSTICE, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another.
. . .
Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different. Statements like [these] . . . are almost always made with intent to deceive. Other words used in variable meanings, in most cases more or less dishonestly, are: CLASS, TOTALITARIAN, SCIENCE, PROGRESSIVE, REACTIONARY BOURGEOIS, EQUALITY.
- George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
Horizon Cybermedia is about embracing the truth in the medium of art and cinema. When we talk about "TRUTH," in no way do we intend it in the deceptive vein of Orwellian rhetoric. Rather, we mean it in the sense of the dictionary meaning of the word, namely:
1 a archaic : FIDELITY, CONSTANCY b : sincerity in action, character, and utterance
2 a (1): the state of being the case : FACT (2) : the body of real things, events, and facts : ACTUALITY (3) often capitalized : a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality b : a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true <truths of thermodynamics> c : the body of true statements and propositions
3 a : the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality b chiefly British : true 2 c : fidelity to an original or to a standard
4 capitalized Christian Science : GOD
— in truth : in accordance with fact : ACTUALLY
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary
One of the quotations that inspires our operation is the following quote from John F. Kennedy:
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.
Check out our ongoing film series, Exploration with Uday Gunjikar at our website http://www.explorationtheseries.com and please feel free to invite your friends and family to check it out as well. The current episode explores the Wine Country region of Sonoma County, CA. Future episodes will take you to Calcutta, India; to Half Moon Bay, CA, and to many other fascinating destinations.
Wishing you the very best,
Uday Gunjikar,
Founder and CEO,
Horizon Cybermedia, Inc.
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