Eric Blair and Davy Jones understood communication. The former wrote a “dystopian” novel in which “The Party” wants to narrow the vocabulary to narrow the range of thought – manipulation of language as a method of mind control.

The novel is Nineteen Eighty-Four, written under the name George Orwell, the title transposing the year of its composition, 1948. Without diminishing the wider point of the novel, the foibles of Fascism, “The Party’s” world is evident in much of today’s communication.

Davy Jones changed his name as well, to David Bowie. He wanted to make a theatrical production based on the novel, but Orwell’s widow resisted overtures from a rock musician. Bowie put his ideas into the 1974 album Diamond Dogs including the songs 1984 and Big Brother. It foreshadowed punk.

In much of their work Orwell and Bowie picked up on the zeitgeist of the time but described future worlds. Young dudes both.

Darrell Croker is senior coach at Write For Impact