Quote:
Originally Posted by rewboss 
I think it would be more worrying to have dictionaries under government control (directly or indirectly). Totalitarian governments sometimes try to control how language is used, because in doing so they think they can control how people think. This was taken to its logical conclusion in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the government was planning to change the language so that people would be unable to talk about certain subjects because they didn't have the words for them. |
OK, it would all depend on your interpretation of 'indirectly'; however, we still make a difference between a dictionary and a list or inventory, so we don't include 'fimbling sensation' after some TV characters in a children TV series (if small children understand it and use it is language, isn't it?) We don't include Mcjob neither; we have a well-developed swearing words system in Spanish. A comedian may coin a similar term and it may catch up and become popular, for a while, but that's all. In a few years' time, if you came across that expression in a book, a footnote would tell you about the meaning conveyed and the nuances implied.
I don't really want to read between the lines in your reference to totalitarian governments, and I don't really know whether by totalitarian you just mean 'dictatorships' or you also include those governments which try to impose their culture and habits on migrants -by means of forcing them to pass a test to get citizenship, for instance-. Politics is one thng but people are not that gullible. 'You can take a horse to the river, but you can't make it drink.'
Finally, with all due respect, I find your reference to Orwell's 1984 a bit childish -no offence meant-. I seem to remember it was by means of altering history. Personally, I liked 'Coming Up for Air' much more.