done
solely with the object of saving time. Even in the early decades of the
twentieth century, telescoped words and phrases had been one of the
characteristic features of political language; and it had been noticed that
the tendency to use abbreviations of this kind was most marked in
totalitarian countries and totalitarian organizations. Examples were such
words as Nazi, Gestapo, Comintern, Inprecorr, Agitprop. In the beginning
the practice had been adopted as it were instinctively, but in Newspeak it
was used with a conscious purpose. It was perceived that in thus
abbreviating a name one narrowed and subtly altered its meaning, by cutting
out most of the associations that would otherwise cling to it. The words
Communist International, for instance, call up a composite picture of
universal human brotherhood, red flags, barricades, Karl Marx, and the
Paris Commune. The word Comintern, on the other hand, suggests merely a
tightly-knit organization and a well-defined body of doctrine. It refers to
something almost as easily recognized, and as limited in purpose, as a
chair or a table. Comintern is a word that can be uttered almost without
taking thought, whe