By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. -- George Carlin

     This article was an extremely interesting read. George Orwell's argument that the English language is in a bad way is valid, and in my opinion, true. Orwell states that writing in the English language is being plagued by extreme vagueness and overall ineptitude. He goes on to say that this is occurring because of a growing reliance on metaphors that are outdated and lack meaning; he claims that these metaphors are popular because they save the author from the task of being original and creating phrases for themselves. Orwell claims that such a reliance shows that the author is not interested in what it is that he or she is writing about.

     Orwell goes on to discuss the use of flowery language and how it is really not a necessity. Most people tend to think that using high-brow language is a mark of someone's intelligence, or their class. That is definitely not always the case. Anyone has the ability to go through a thesaurus and find words that they think makes them sound intelligent; At the end of the day, it's not the words one uses to convey ones meaning/argument that count, it's the ideas behind it. This reminds of how much my teachers/professors stress that flowery language and fluff does not a good paper make; instead, it may make you seem as though you know very little. If your ideas are concrete, there will always be a simpler way to say it.

     This brings me to another point in Orwell's article: politicians. Orwell argues that politicians use this decline in language, and meaning, to their advantage, which I whole-heartedly believe is true. Most politicians cannot write a speech (or have one written for them) that does not include some type of metaphor, or an abstract concept in place of a concrete idea. Like Orwell said, political language is "designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

     This growing reliance on metaphors and flowery language is still a major one, and like Orwell said, this isn't something that can be solved all at once. Instead, we can all try to change our own habits.