IN March 1940, during the course of a three-part article on Henry Miller entitled ‘Inside the Whale,’ George Orwell explained that totalitarianism is inevitable and that we are fast approaching “an age in which freedom of thought will be at first a deadly sin and later on a meaningless abstraction.”

Although we have already reached the stage whereby “freedom of thought” is rigorously denied through political correctness and the ruthless punishment that is reserved for those who dare to transgress established mores, Orwell’s remark about its ultimate evolution into a “meaningless abstraction” is perhaps more difficult to comprehend. Indeed, whilst some eight years later his Nineteen Eighty-Four was to elaborate upon this idea in relation to the wanton manipulation of language by way of Newspeak, I believe that Orwell’s prediction about the long-term dangers of “meaningless abstraction” has not yet been fulfilled but that it will undoubtedly become more and more relevant over time. Unlike the “abstractions” themselves, which, as the term suggests, are bound ultimately for the hidden realms of obscurity. Lost to the consciousness like the fading remnants of a childhood dream.

Whilst Orwell was correct to highlight the calculated distortion of language that was already taking place in England during the early-1940s, particularly through the BBC, this process is sure to proceed far beyond the field of linguistics and extend into the social sphere. After all, what can possibly be achieved by discussing racial and cultural identity in a land that has been transformed into an amorphous melting-pot? Why even mention borders and boundaries when each country has become a migratory hotchpotch comprised of people from multiple nationalities? What possible use will people have for historical detail, when they are taking their lead from Hollywood productions that repackage, reinterpret and rewrite past events for financial gain? Will anyone really understand what is meant by increasingly antiquated terminology such as ‘male’ and female’ in a gender-modified world? Who would ever stick their head above the parapet to express a profound belief in a single, monotheistic deity, when all forms of spirituality are floating in the tepid waters of a manufactured pluralism? Race, culture, history, gender, spirituality . . . these are the vanishing points of reference that are poised to become the “meaningless abstractions” of tomorrow.