Orwellian

Abstract

Orwellian is an adjective which is used to describe a situation, an idea or a societal condition suggested in the writings of 20th century author George Orwell, usually identified as being destructive to a free and open society. It was first used by the American author Mary McCarthy in 1950. The term denotes draconian control by propaganda, surveillance, disinformation, and denial of truth. It is commonly used in reference to Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four which describes an oppressive fictional totalitarian society where propaganda is used to manipulate the population. Orwell was particularly concerned with the degradation of language and wrote about this in his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language. The term was described in The NewYork Times as the most commonly used adjective derived from an author's name. Critics have commented on its prolific use, stating that the term is often misunderstood, misused and applied with contradictory meaning.