Education: Swindles & Perversions

The English language has come to a sad state, decided London literary critic George Orwell (Dickens, Dali and Others; Animal Farm). In the current New Republic,* he tells what is wrong.

Writes Orwell: "The English language . . . becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. . . . To think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of...

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