George Orwell’s emphasis on clarity of language and objective definitions, exemplified in his seminal essay on “Politics and the English Language,” remains worth emulating in 2025 and beyond.
When so many so-called public intellectuals, columnists, opinion leaders and even professional economists embrace popular fallacies and use misleading language, it’s harmful both to literacy and liberty.
How pleasing it is, then, when a nationally known economist not only uses words accurately, in opposition to common misconceptions, misinformation and ideological bias, but also demonstrates how well he understands and appreciates Orwell’s classic fiction.
David Henderson does just that in “The Real Meaning of Privilege,” a penetrating essay on his always-interesting and insightful Substack column, I Blog to Differ.
Challenging the widespread beliefs about the nature of “privilege,” Henderson weaves in an insightful analysis of Orwell’s 1984, the classic dystopian and anti-authoritarian novel that was inducted early on – and not coincidentally but aptly in the year 1984 – into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
“After decades of using the word “privilege” instead of “wealth,” we have the ultimate result: a government that is officially hostile to high-income people whom it accuses, in a completely unsupported claim, of not “playing by the rules,” Henderson writes.
The whole essay is worth rereading here, but one of the key points Henderson makes after outlining the central themes of his essay is an additional problem that arises with the misuse of the word “privilege.”
“It robs us of the word we need when we really want to oppose privilege,” he said.
“Try objecting to the kinds of privileges I laid out above, but without using that word. You’ll find your justified outrage blunted. In his novel 1984, George Orwell wrote about how the absence of words to express a thought makes the thought harder or impossible to express.
The function of the “memory hole” in 1984 was to take away the ability to express certain thoughts. And the oppressors in 1984 who promulgated the famous “Freedom is Slavery” and “War is Peace” slogans did so to confuse people so that they would cease trying to understand.
“It’s time to end that confusion and reclaim a powerful word that has been misused by those who wish to reduce our freedom.”
Hear, hear!
ABOUT HENDERSON
David Henderson, a Canadian-born American economist, continues to write for the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and his own Substack blog after retiring from his position as an economics professor of at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
He served on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984 and later became a research fellow with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
Perhaps the best of Henderson’s books to read (and one on my bookshelf that I can recommend as a libertarian classic) is his intellectual autobiography The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey.
Henderson also coauthored Making Great Decisions in Business and Life (2006) and edited The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
That encyclopedia has gone through three printings, been translated into Spanish and Portuguese and is now online at the Library of Economics and Liberty. or “Econlib” at www.econlib.org
Visit David Henderson’s Substack column I Blog to Differ.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:
* Prometheus winners: For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer and Sarah Hoyt), Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters. We understand that the arts and literature can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future – and in some ways can be even more powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
Through recognizing the literature of liberty and the many different but complementary visions of a free future via the Prometheus Awards, the LFS hopes to help spread ideas, humane ideals and ethical principles that help humanity overcome tyranny, end slavery, reduce the threat of war, repeal or constrain other abuses of coercive power and achieve universal liberty, respect for human rights and a better world (perhaps ultimately, worlds) for all.
