UIt de leeszaal (61)

‘Stuart Chase and others have come near to claiming that all abstract words are meaningless, and have used this as a pretext for advocating a kind of political quietism. Since you don’t know what Fascism is, how can you struggle against Fascism? One need not swallow such absurdities as this, but one thought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end. (…) Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthfull and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.’
[George Orwell, Why I write, p. 120]