Orwellian Newspeak: Censorship and Linguistic Purification in Iran, Sweden, France, and New York

In his April 20, 2012, editorial for artpress, Jacques Henric cautions against the degradation of language, drawing parallels to George Orwell's concept of 'Newspeak' from '1984'. He points out various instances: Iran prohibits terms like 'love affair' and 'dance'; in Sweden, nurseries use 'friends' instead of 'girls' and 'boys'; France has replaced 'mademoiselle' with 'madame'; a presidential hopeful proposes eliminating 'race' from official documents; and New York City bans words such as 'dinosaur' and 'slavery' to prevent student discomfort. Henric contends that these actions diminish language's capacity to convey reality, reflecting Orwell's warnings about totalitarianism. He also cites Mallarmé's 1894 remarks as a beneficial shift, criticizing the linguistic purges of the French Revolution, and concludes that 'hell is not paved with good intentions, but paradise is paved with insane decisions'.