作者：张兴贵
官方通报充斥着毫无信息量的套话与宏大叙事，而民间舆论则退化为情绪化的黑话与狂热的政治正确复读，这是极权主义的成功、理性的失败。如果语言中没有“剥削”这个词，你就无法意识到自己正在被奴役；如果“自由”就意味着在党国划定的圈内活动，自由就成了一个无法被接受的东西，认为自由是不那么美好的。极权主义通过不断更迭词汇和更改词语的含义，直接从源头上卸载了人类的批判性思维功能。
一个是造新词。极权主义制造新词，真正的目的不是为了“丰富”表达，恰恰相反，是为了“窄化”语言，人为制造思想的盲区。乔治·奥威尔在《1984》说过一句让人毛骨悚然的真理：新话的全部目的，就是为了缩小思想的范围。在正常的文明中，人类发现复杂的现象，于是创造更细腻的词汇去逼近真相。但在极权逻辑下，这个过程被逆转了。政权通过不断向社会注入大批具有“政治隔离功能”的新词，强行夺取语言的解释权。这些源源不断被发明出来的新词，本质上是“认知阻断剂”。它们首先将苦难“技术化”与“无害化”，因公权力膨胀而受难的血肉之躯，被概括为“社会面动态清零”、“全周期闭环”、“不可避免的代价”时，苦难的个体性被消灭了，人类的痛苦变成了报表上冰冷的统计数字；当经济结构性崩溃、民众失去生计被概括为“灵活就业”、“自主择业”、“轻微结构性微调”时，体制的无能被精巧地转化为个人的主动选择；对于叛逆者，它们为人为制造的敌我对立发放“政治标签”，诸如“历史虚无主义”、“境外势力”、“害群之马”等新词，没有任何严谨的学术定义，唯一的用途就是充当思想的捕兽夹。只要你表达质疑，这个标签就会啪的一声扣在你的头上。极权政权不断制造新词，这不是在发明语言，这是在阉割大脑。
另一个是语言污染。如果说不断制造新词是定向清除，那么更改定义和内涵等语言污染就是对整个社会进行“认知重组”，让美好的词语成为民间自主的禁忌，如小姐等。这种污染的核心机制是“词义的定义转向并崩溃”，成为模糊的、甚至恶心的。极权政权最热衷于霸占人类文明中最美好的词汇：民主、自由、法治、正义、光荣。它们将这些词汇作为政治图腾高悬，却在现实中践行着完全相反的暴政。当“法治”等同于权力的任意裁决，当“民主”等同于唯一的赞成票，语言的文字本身与客观现实发生了剧烈的断裂，谁还相信这些词语的本来内涵呢？为了在长期的政治宣教与高压环境中生存，个体被迫发展出汉娜·阿伦特所说的“不假思索的顺从”，或者奥威尔笔下的“双重思想”，也就是在大脑中同时承认两种相互矛盾的信念，并同时接受它们。你明知那是谎言，但你必须熟练地、甚至狂热地用它来论证真理。当整个社会都习惯了这种精神分裂式的表达，语言就彻底失去了衡量真伪的功能。它变成了权力对个体尊严进行肉刑式折磨的羞辱工具，它让你在公开赞美奴役的过程中，自愿完成了人格的阉割。
当制造的新词和语言污染完成了对精神生态的清洗，公共空间就会呈现一种令人绝望的“语言荒漠化”。你会看到，整个社会的表达呈现出惊人的低幼化、同质化。人们不再具有阐述复杂因果关系的能力，不再具有进行严密逻辑论证的耐心。所有的公共讨论，最终都被简化为“非我族类，其心必异”的捕风捉影。为了安全，你开始在体制赐予的新词框架内为自己辩护；在日常生活中，你也开始熟练运用那些被污染的词汇去解构苦难、粉饰太平。你以为你只是在向现实低头，实际上，你正在用极权主义喂养的垃圾，去杀死你原本健康的理性肌体。你最终会发现，你不是在被迫说谎，而是你已经失去了说真话的能力。你成了你所反对的体制的一部分。
编辑：胡景 校对：熊辩 翻译：周敏
Phenomena of Totalitarianism No. 10 : Linguistic Corruption
Author: Zhang Xinggui
Abstract: Totalitarianism forcibly seizes the right to interpret language by manufacturing new words and engaging in linguistic pollution (changing definitions). This “linguistic corruption” is essentially a cognitive blocker designed to narrow human thought and eliminate critical thinking, ultimately leading to the desertification of language in the public sphere and the spiritual castration of individuals.
Official announcements are filled with contentless clichés and grand narratives, while civil public opinion degrades into emotional jargon and fanatical repetition of political correctness—this is the success of totalitarianism and the failure of reason. If the word “exploitation” does not exist in a language, you cannot realize that you are being enslaved; if “freedom” merely means moving within the circle drawn by the party-state, freedom becomes an unacceptable thing, leading people to believe that freedom is not so wonderful. By continuously updating vocabulary and altering the meanings of words, totalitarianism directly uninstalls human critical thinking functions right from the source.
One aspect is coining new words. Totalitarianism manufactures new words; its real purpose is not to “enrich” expression, but quite the contrary, to “narrow” language and artificially create blind spots of thought. George Orwell uttered a spine-chilling truth in 1984: the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought. In a normal civilization, human beings discover complex phenomena and thus create more delicate vocabulary to approach the truth. But under totalitarian logic, this process is reversed. By continuously injecting a large number of new words with “political isolation functions” into society, the regime forcibly seizes the right to interpret language. These endlessly invented new words are essentially “cognitive blockers.” They first “technicalize” and “harmlessize” suffering. When flesh-and-blood bodies suffering from the expansion of public power are summarized as “dynamic zero-COVID at the societal level,” “full-cycle closed loop,” or “unavoidable costs,” the individuality of suffering is erased, and human pain becomes cold statistical figures on a report. When structural economic collapse and the loss of livelihoods among the populace are summarized as “flexible employment,” “independent choice of employment,” or “slight structural fine-tuning,” the incompetence of the system is ingeniously converted into personal voluntary choice. As for rebels, they issue “political labels” for the artificially created opposition between self and enemy. New words such as “historical nihilism,” “foreign forces,” and “black sheep” have no rigorous academic definitions whatsoever; their sole purpose is to serve as bear traps for thought. The moment you express doubt, this label snaps shut on your head. A totalitarian regime continuously manufactures new words—this is not inventing language, this is castrating the brain.
The other aspect is linguistic pollution. If continuously manufacturing new words is targeted elimination, then linguistic pollution such as changing definitions and connotations is “cognitive restructuring” for the entire society, making beautiful words become voluntary taboos among the populace, such as “Xiaojie” (miss/lady). The core mechanism of this pollution is “the shift and collapse of lexical definition,” rendering words vague or even disgusting. Totalitarian regimes are most keen on occupying the most beautiful words in human civilization: democracy, freedom, rule of law, justice, and glory. They hang these words high as political totems, yet in reality they practice complete opposite tyrannies. When “rule of law” is equated with the arbitrary rulings of power, and “democracy” is equated with the sole affirmative vote, a severe fracture occurs between the written characters of language themselves and objective reality—who then still believes in the original connotations of these words? To survive in a long-term environment of political indoctrination and high pressure, individuals are forced to develop what Hannah Arendt called “thoughtless obedience,” or what Orwell described as “doublethink”—that is, holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them at the same time. You know full well it is a lie, yet you must masterfully, and even fanatically, use it to argue for the truth. When the entire society gets used to this schizophrenic form of expression, language completely loses its function of measuring truth and falsehood. It becomes a humiliating tool used by power to inflict corporal-like torture on individual dignity, making you voluntarily complete the castration of your personality in the process of publicly praising slavery.
When manufactured new words and linguistic pollution complete the purging of the spiritual ecosystem, the public space will present a desperate “linguistic desertification.” You will see that the expression of the entire society displays an astonishing degree of infantilization and homogenization. People no longer possess the ability to elaborate complex causal relationships, nor the patience to conduct rigorous logical arguments. All public discussions are ultimately reduced to grasping at shadows under “those who are not of our kind must harbor different minds.” For safety, you begin to defend yourself within the framework of new words granted by the system; in daily life, you also begin to skillfully employ those polluted words to deconstruct suffering and gloss over peace. You think you are merely bowing to reality, but in fact, you are using the garbage fed by totalitarianism to kill your originally healthy body of reason. Eventually, you will find that you are not being forced to lie, but that you have already lost the ability to tell the truth. You have become a part of the system you opposed.
Editor: Hu Jing Proofreader: Xiong Bian Translator: Zhou Min
