Orwell

The above comments mean that although utilizing hackneyed expressions (metaphors, phrases, etc) may make writing easier; it is dangerous for several reasons. First, the reader does not truly understand what you are saying because it is in no way original. Out of habit, the reader just breezes through the phrases without gaining any new meaning from what was read. Second, the writer is being lazy by failing to think of the correct words, metaphors or phrases to express what he or she truly wants to say. Instead, the writer uses “canned” phrases that have lost meaning through their overuse, and thus no longer ascribe any true meaning, even to the writer himself. The writer thus does not have to know at any level beyond the surface what he or she thinks. Thus, as Orwell wrote, the meaning of one’s own writing is no longer even lucid to the writer themselves. Politically, this can be very dangerous, as it allows politicians to spew rhetoric that, if they or the readers actually thought through in clear and simple terms, would be extremely disturbing. Finally, I think Orwell finds this practice dangerous because the writer is propagating the existing decline of language to what he deems “modern language.” Orwell does however, claim this process is reversible and therefore if individuals recognize the problem and make a conscious effort to change the way they speak and write, language can be “saved.”