A Reflective Response to “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell

In “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell presents the problem of degradation in English. This happens when people, politicians in particular, use longer words to confuse or misinform audiences. The problem has elevated since the ‘40s. Today’s common population has a very small and unlearned vocabulary. Abbreviations and acronyms are used in everyday speech. This is probably because of texting, social media, and video games; all of which either limit your character usage or require the shortest amount of time to write what you need to say. In my experience with gaming typing rapidly is essential, using an almost non-English language with acronyms, abbreviations, and half-sentence phrases. Unfortunately this way of writing is moving into other less immediate situations, such as comments on websites. This can lead to misunderstanding and confusion to a degree that is frustrating to the average citizen, especially in political and legal documents. A solution I would advocate is to increase usage of the more complex language in schools, and require children to know and understand a larger vocabulary. The decay that I have presented cannot be combatted at the source as Orwell’s problem can. Instead of reducing the more complex words in writing, perhaps we should make them more commonplace. This way, we can remove the advantage politicians have in the vocabulary and create a smarter civilization in the process. This is not the only problem that Orwell presents about the English language, but it does have a more pressing concern on the society today. Language is a valuable resource that we often take for granted; this is something Orwell and I hold to be true. And as Orwell states, and I firmly believe, “The point is that the process [decay] is reversible.” (Paragraph 2)