Why Orwell’s ‘1984’ matters so much now – from the Washington Post, Book World editor Ron Charles http://wapo.st/2kk7wVY

Orwell warned us that “already history has in a sense ceased to exist, ie. there is no such thing as a history of our own times which could be universally accepted, and the exact sciences are endangered.” And further, he saw that “the horrors of emotional nationalism and a tendency to disbelieve in the existence of objective truth” leads democracy to turn into authoritarianism. 

For decades many in the academy have argued that truth is relative. Now this has infected our politically conservative as well as liberal discourse.

Orwell’s hope was that those who cared about language and the right word would lead us back to a healthy polity by first fighting the “decay of language” that leads to doublespeak and “aletrnative facts.” Those of us who work the craft of language have this duty: to use words rightly and well and exactly in search for truths that may be elusive but are truly out there and in here.