The idea that language shapes our thoughts completely, determining what we can and can't think about, is called "linguistic determinism." The state in "1984" is very much a proponent of this theory, and uses Newspeak to drive older concepts out of existence, so that eventually all independent thought, and then all thought, will become impossible. I don't think it will work—both language and the human spirit regenerate—but I think it is possible to do a lot of damage to a lot of people trying to make it work. An example of this is the way Newspeak deals with qualitative judgments: "ungood" or even "doubleplusungood." These would get rid of "bad" and "terrible."
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