Image of a political puppet
"When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the familiar phrases—bestial atrocities, iron heel, blood-stained tyranny, free peoples of the world, stand shoulder to shoulder—one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy: a feeling which suddenly becomes stronger at moments when the light catches the speaker’s spectacles and turns them into blank discs which seem to have no eyes behind them." (255)
The image of the empty-eyed orator illustrates the description of the political figure as unthinking mouthpiece for party line. With this image, we see political pantomiming in action.
Image of "pacification"
"Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification" (256).
In an essay with very few concrete images, this stands out starkly and illustrates what Orwell means when he speaks of the dishonesty of abstract language. When imperialists apologize for the impacts of colonialism, Orwell argues that there is an agenda in their abstract language. It is easy to defend a concept like "pacification," but hard to get behind the above image, which is what Orwell says "pacification" actually looks like.
Image of "population transfer"
"Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers." (256)
As with the previous image, we see the contrast between the material concrete and evasive abstract. The same argument about the sly effect of abstract language holds here: It is much easier for a politician to justify a concept like "transfers of populations" when they only use that abstract language. It's much harder to justify or support the physical experience of a "partition" or "population exchange."
Image of "elimination of unreliable elements"
"People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable elements." (256)
Now a familiarly insidious turn of phrase, the idea of "eliminating unreliable elements" used to be a justified concept by supporters of Stalinism and the Soviet purges and gulags. Again Orwell shows the nefariousness of generalized political language. A concept can be defended in the abstract. It's much harder to stand proudly behind the concrete reality. The challenge of writing honestly is thus a personal challenge to stand behind your politics.
