Question

Winston's friend Symes says that the purpose of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought and make thoughtcrime impossible. He says, "The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect." Do you think that it is possible to create an artificial language that will control what people think? If we eliminate the words for bad ideas, will that eliminate the ideas? Is this why we prohibit certain words from radio and television? (Participants in this panel may want to preview the appendix, "The Principles of Newspeak.")

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

1. Creation and an artificial language is not able to control what people think. This is because thinking is very influenced by emotions and since it is not possible to prevent bad emotions from developing, it is not possible to prevent bad ideas from developing and an artificial language is not able to modify people's feelings.

2. Eliminating the words for bad ideas will not eliminate those ideas, but it will eliminate only the words that name them, that is, people will continue to have bad ideas, but will not know how to name them. Taking the name of something does not prevent that something from existing.

3. Words that refer to bad ideas are banned from TV and radio to discourage people from thinking about those ideas. However, this does not mean that these ideas will never be established in an individual's mind.