FROM "ODIO" TO "HODIO", A LESSON IN NEWSPEAK

 

What Spain desperately needs is a level-headed Prime Minister who will perform the duties of his office. The current Spanish PM seems to have too much time on his hands, and yesterday he meddled with language once again.

In his efforts to control everything, he now wishes to control language—a task well-nigh impossible. Pedro Sánchez has even gone so far as to respell the word odio (“hate”) as “hodio,” a convenient label for whatever criticism may be directed against him.

Fancy that! Any criticism, correction, suggestion, or questioning of his policies may now be dismissed as HODIO.

One cannot help recalling Nineteen Eighty-Four and its invention of Newspeak.

O tempora, o mores!