In George Orwell’s book, 1984, he warns that words can have meanings changed by manipulative political actors, who mean to concentrate power, prevent dissent, replacing freedom with fear.
Orwell wrote that book in 1949, and at the time, the thing seemed unthinkable in America –the manipulation of truth and normalized oppression, a description of Soviet Communism. The whole book was meant to be a parody or satire, mocking the freedomless Stalinist Soviet Union.
Yet here we are. We look around to see words constantly being redefined by leftists, progressives, power concentrators who care little for family, faith, freedom, or history, elevating communism, collectivism, socialism, any -ism that will give them power over others, the power to redefine.
We see a proud defense by misguided progressives, these disoriented and disorienting former Democrats, who say there is no difference between legal and illegal immigration, no difference between boys and girls, no sanctity to Constitutional rights, no right and wrong, except that the presumption is against tradition, family, faith, and freedom, since they undermine power.
We watch the things men and women have died for since the American Revolution, in the War of 1812, Civil War, two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, two Gulf wars, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and forgotten, lawless places like Somalia – forgotten and worse, mocked, thrown away in a rush for power.
So, how do we reclaim our history, constitutional values, traditions, and a sense of respect for the known and established past, for rights that come to us through the sacrifice of countless American heroes?
How do we force a collective remembering, stop the collective forgetting, the coerced miseducation, misdirection, and replacement of God and history with government and demagoguery?
How do we protect the future by reverence for the past, understanding that truth does not change, that rights come from our Creator and not from another human, that they are indeed timeless?
How do we reestablish the disappearing fact that words have meanings, and the meanings were put to the words so that these things – especially rights tied to family, faith, and freedom – will not change? How do we stop a powerful, centralizing government from rising again to suppress?
The answer comes back to insisting that words – legal and illegal, boys and girls, right and wrong – have meanings that do not change. We must retake control of the language, because that is where freedom begins.
Here is a last epiphany – this threat to our freedom, language manipulation, has long been known. It predates our time, even George Orwell’s, and probably goes back to the earliest days of mankind seeking to retain decisions to himself or herself, against a manipulative government.
Even Robert Frost, a largely non-political poet, wrote in 1930:
“The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But the theory now goes
That the apple’s a rose,
And the pear is, and so’s
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose –
But were always a rose.”
Bottom line: We must reclaim our language, insist that words have meaning, and describe unchanging things. They represent a stake in our future based on our past. If we do not protect them, both vanish. Frost knew it, Orwell knew it, and we must too.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
