About oldSpeak

The term “Oldspeak” is derived from George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is the story of one man’s nightmare odyssey through a future world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but individual thought and memory. Newspeak, the official language of Orwell’s future state, was designed to meet the ideological agenda of the government. That agenda was to sever humanity from its language (that is, Oldspeak) and thus its history and past. From there the government, by way of Newspeak, could control how people think and act. As Orwell explains:

This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meanings whatever. To give a single example. The word free still existed in Newspeak, but it could only be used in such statements as “This dog is free from lice” or “This field is free from weeds.” It could not be used in its old sense of “politically free” or “intellectually free,” since political and intellectual freedom no longer existed even as concepts, and were therefore of necessity nameless.

OLDSPEAK, the online publication of The Rutherford Institute, is dedicated to publishing interviews, articles, and commentary on subjects often overlooked by the mainstream media in the areas of politics, arts, culture, law, and religion. For provocative and insightful commentary, return here each week for features like our exclusive interview with writer/activist Nat Hentoff. Although the views and opinions expressed in OLDSPEAK may not always be those of The Rutherford Institute, our commitment to the spirit of free thought and expression always will.