On the Language of Global Politics 

Years ago, when I used the words “colonialism” and “imperialism” in academia in the U.S., I was viewed as a communist. Now, in the wake of the US assault on Venezuela, I see that those two words are back again, along with “gunboat diplomacy” and “the Monroe Doctrine,” also known now as the “Donroe Doctrine.” What goes around comes around. Venezuela’s attorney general called what the U.S. did in his nation “state terrorism.” That’s spot on.

In the New York Times, M. Gessen spoke about American colonialism. In an interview, she said, “We’re seeing colonization of an entire country. That’s beyond spheres of influence.” The New York Times noted that recent remarks by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, were meant to “justify imperialism.” Times’ reporter Chris Cameron wrote that “Mr. Miller’s language echoed a dark history of the United States’ governing weaker, smaller states in Latin America by flexing its military might.”

Was Cameron channeling Howard Zinn?  Maybe so!

I was not the only one who was labeled a communist back in the day when I used the words imperialism and colonialism. Most Marxists were also targeted. It’s long past the time to bring back those words. They accurately described US actions around the world one hundred years ago and fifty years ago and they accurately describe what the US is doing today in Venezuela and elsewhere. M. Gessen also said of Trump, “When he compares the television images of the extraction of Maduro with the television coverage of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it inspires him to do more things like this.”

Sadly so. Imperialism is in the saddle and rides humanity.

In his 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell attacked the left and condemned its use of words like “class, totalitarian, science, progressive, reactionary, bourgeois, equality.” He added, “The whole tendency of modern prose is away from concreteness.”

Orwell was wrong.

We need words like “class,” “progressive,” “reactionary,” and “bourgeoisie,” and words like “equality,” “science,” and “totalitarian,” too.”

Look to Trump, his cronies and the MAGA folks to see what Orwell had in mind when he wrote, “Our civilization is decadent and our language — so the argument runs — must inevitably share in the general collapse.” Trump and cronies have corrupted the English language and become the voices for decadent American imperialism.

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