Parliament Hill is stuck in 1984

Apparently the calendars on Parliament Hill are set to 1984.

In a bold and highly fascist-laced move the current Canadian Federal government instigated the termination (and subsequent re-hire) of an outspoken geologist this week.

Andrew Okulitch, a 64-year-old scientist emeritus with the Geological Survey of Canada, was fired on Tuesady after bluntly refusing to abide by the newspeak initiated by the Harper regime.

The response was initiated after Okulitch, along with all other federal employees, were ordered to refer to the Stephen Harper Tory government as "Canada's new government". While many may have ignored (or silently abided by) this directive, Okulitch shot off an angry email stating the policy was "ridiculous and embarrassing'' and that he would not use "idiotic buzzwords coined by political hacks.'' That's when he was fired. The media (under) reported the situation and 24-hours later Okulitch was rehired.

While this may seem like a comedy of errors moment there is something far more insidious and disturbing about this situation; the fact that Okulitch was fired for not towing the proverbial line is upsetting enough -- apolitical federal employees should be exempt from retribution if they opt not to abide by political posturing -- however, it is the actions of the CURRENT federal government that is, by far, more disturbing.

Newspeak was a phrase coined by George Orwell in his revolutionary dystopian novel, 1984; the term was used to describe a method employed by the governing regime to reduce the number of words in the English language in order to eliminate ideas that were deemed dangerous and seditious. While Orwell's novel was fiction, the ideas that generated his masterpiece were not. He took the role of the British censors and outlined, for us, what this role could mean if left to run rampant without checks and balances. The fact is, the reduction of the English language cannot start by banning words -- overt censorship causes too much anger. However, the reduction of the English language and the control of cultural ideas starts with the restriction and enforcement of phrases.

The fact that the current federal Tory government would even issue such a directive implicitly lends support to the notion that language is an essential component to structuring and restructuring thoughts, attitudes and ideas.

A character in 1984 describes it succinctly: "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... The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought as we understand it now."

Now, of course, I can hear the rational and extremely individualistic portion of the crowd stating (or more like yelling) that this is simply a matter of logical proportions -- if people do not agree with the newspeak, they simply do not have to abide by it.

But there is more at play here. First: the Tory government issued a DIRECTIVE. A directive is an order -- a command. The order was an attempt to control or dictate a rather large segment of the population -- it demanded that they alter their communication in order to benefit the Party. Second: the Tory government is manipulating the institution of government. By demanding that government employees alter the way they communicate to the public, the Tory government is implicitly acknowledging that a) the institution is a powerful vehicle for advertisement of said thoughts, ideas and concepts and b) that these thoughts, ideas and concepts are integral to securing popular support.

For the linguist Edward Sapir, language is not only a vehicle for the expression of thoughts, perceptions, sentiments, and values characteristic of a community; it also represents a fundamental expression of social identity. Sapir said: "the mere fact of a common speech serves as a peculiar potent symbol of the social solidarity of those who speak the language." In short, language enables us, as a culture, to communicate ideas and concepts both literally and symbolically. The control of language, then, enables an institution to control the construction and use of these cultural symbols (a phenomena that has been documented throughout history -- just look at the Hitler regime, Pol Pot's rural revolution, Martin Luther King Jr. , Nelson Mandela or Ghandi's empowerment speeches or even the feminist thought and literature that has been produced in the last century).

For the Tory government to inexplicably demand that all federal employees use the Canadian version of Newspeak is a sad and dangerous testament to the state of OUR nation. Simply put the Tory government is NOT Canada's new government as this implies a change. And in the last nine months there has been little evidence of change in regimes.

For more information on the scientist's reinstatement go to:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/

For articles on the importance of language go to:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/070300-104.htm (Ralph Nader's article on the topic)
http://www.wsf.org.uk/docs/importance_of_language.doc
http://www.racismnoway.com.au/library/understanding/index-The.html

For articles/blogs etc. that cite the importance of language go to:
http://theoctillion.com/2006/08/importance-of-language-in-efforts-to.html

For more information on George Orwell go to:
http://www.newspeak.com/Newspeak.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell