In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible … thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness. Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification.
- George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
October 31, 2004 5:43 AM
