Intellectual Self-Defence

Unlearning Languages That Control the Mind

I was asked to write the Foreword to a new textbook called “Unlearning Languages That Control the Mind”. Routledge is currently editing it for publication but here’s the version I thought was best, which I’ve put behind a paywall for copyright reasons. It is due for release around Christmas 2025.

Language does not merely reflect reality; it constructs it. This is the basis for the academic turn away from materialism and towards social constructionism. But those in power have always instinctively understood the principle - using words not just to communicate but to control. From Orwell’s 1984 to the “manufacturing of consent” outlined by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, the shaping of language is the shaping of public opinion.

This book, Unlearning Languages That Control the Mind, is a crucial intervention in that battle—an invitation to dismantle the linguistic frameworks imposed upon us and reclaim our ability to think freely. Chomsky calls it “intellectual self-defence” against unaccountable power. The authors similarly propose a method of reverse mind engineering—not merely resisting manipulation, but actively deconstructing the cognitive structures that sustain it.

In a world where “peacekeeping” missiles rain down on civilians and “freedom” is proscribed by algorithmic censorship, we are surrounded by linguistic distortions so deeply embedded that we rarely notice them.

We don’t sell and launch explosives – with our guidance systems - we provide “lethal aid”.

“Air support” replaces bombing.

“Clean-up operation” has filled in for “search and destroy”

Our “interrogations” are “enhanced”.

Human beings can easily slide into the labels: “collateral” or “shields”.

"We don't do disinformation... we do operationalising the truth,” says the head of MI6. “That's the big difference,” apparently.

The word “pacification” has mostly vanished since the colonial era, not because the practice has ceased, but because the term too clearly betrayed its meaning: subjugation.

How much longer can the phrase “mowing the lawn” survive in polite company, given its implication that Palestinian people are foliage to be burnt back in an otherwise peaceful garden? Perhaps that depends on who writes the History.

It’s all to defend the “Rules-based International Order”, don’t you know? It’s all oh-so-necessary to defeat all that nasty “disinformation” they have nowadays.