A lot of people have never read "1984".
I'm sure that's true.
1984 and Animal Farm were part of my required reading down here in the red state south, worst of all at a Catholic Private School! Our reading list looked more like a university one!
All animals are equal, some are more equal than others!
And twice at FR I have seen people comment that even though the book was written twenty years ago it is still relevant today.
No, I didn't correct them.
A lot of people have never read "1984".
Everyone should. And I mean *everyone*. In the book, "Ingsoc" (English Socialism) has prevailed in the Western world. Michelle Malkin is making a reference to the concept in the book known as "Newspeak".
Big Brother (the ironic name for the ultra-oppressive government which pretends to "look after and protect" the public) was pushing "Newspeak" as the new, accepted language. On page 45, the protagonist (Winston Smith) is talking to an acquaintance, Syme, who is working on the new edition of the Newspeak dictionary:
[Syme:] "You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We're destroying words -- scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. [...] It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. [...] In your heart you'd prefer to stick to Oldspeak, with all its vagueness and its useless shades of meaning. You don't grasp the beauty of the destruction of words. [...] Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. [...] Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there's no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It's merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won't be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak [...] Even the literature of the party will change. How could you have a slogan like 'freedom is slavery' when the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking -- not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."One of these days, thought Winston with sudden deep conviction, Syme will be vaporized. He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party does not like such people. One day he will disappear.