Why does Orwell think that language has degenerated so much?

George Orwell, in his 1946 essay, "Politics and the English Language," says that

it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes:

Among the problems of modern English are:

1. The first is staleness of imagery ("Dying metaphors.")


2. the other is lack of precision ("Pretentious diction." and problems picking out appropriate verbs and nouns

What causes these two problems?  From the book 1984, I would suggest:

• censorship: by the state, church, or other institution


• overuse of technical jargon and nomenclature


• overuse of politically correct language (euphemism and litote)


• general laziness in thought: thought corrupts language and language corrupts thought.


• too much information, so the public cannot recognize misinformation and propaganda from good information


• fear of surveillance, profiling, and violation of freedoms of speech by the government


• technology and entertainment replacing books

Orwell's advice to correcting these problems:

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.