The Growing Police State: Newspeak Edition

I wrote about this a few days ago (published only this morning) for The Arlington Voice, where I also write from time to time.

Go to that link for the full story, but I'll sum up: The Dallas ISD has issued a series of phrases Principals are being instructed to use when communicating face-to-face with parents and the public.  These phrases are all geared toward making people think "in the right way," about the new Superintendent and the changes he's making in the District.

I want to make a different point here, one I touch on briefly in the article: So much attention today is placed on "how" we see things that we're becoming brainwashed against certain phrases, and therefore thoughts.

Speech, for most people, is thought.  I have known a few people who think in images; my understanding of the current state of research on Dyslexia and it's associated diagnoses is that these people may think in image rather than in words, for instance.  But, for most of us, we think in words.  So when we censor certain words from the national discourse, we limit the number of thoughts people are "allowed" to think.

If this sounds like 1984, that's because it's the same idea behind Newspeak.  We're living with the partial results of over 20 years of Newspeak in the guise of "political correctness."  One of those consequences is this phrase: President Barack Hussein Obama.

The very cry of "Racism" is an attempt to get people to think "in the right way."  The fact that any criticism of the SCOAMT in 2008 was called "racism," was an attempt, largely successful, to keep people from thinking about any deficiencies in his abilities, let alone his character.

That a public official is pushing this kind of jargon-based thought control should be horrifying to anyone concerned about Liberty.  It is but another incremental step along the path toward a tyranny which cannot be opposed, because people literally cannot think of opposing it.

Update: Thanks to @TorchOWyatt on twitter, the incorrect "Principles" has been corrected to "Principals."