>>>>It's probably historical: some languages got used to hidden sense and implicit talk. I am not a linguistic expert, so I could be wrong, but it might be that Russian language is the most double-speak phenomenon in this area.
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>>>What about (ouch, forgot the exact name) of the language in "1984"? I read it recently in English.
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>>Isn't it "Newspeak"?
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>>That expression is hijacked today "Oh, downsizing is newspeak for 'laying people off'"
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>>Just as in "1984" they had "Minitrue" (the Ministry of Truth - in effect lies) nowadays we have the MetPol for London's Metropolitan Police.
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>>Incidentally, recently on a BBC telethon day, the woman who's presented the Big Brother reality show in UK since its start was asked, in a quiz, "Who is the leader of Oceania?" ... and she had no idea.
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>>Similarly many people bandy about the expression "Catch-22" without ever having read the book or really knowing what one is. That annoys me.
>
>I was watching a dvd of one of the old episodes of a show we had here (don't know if it was ever in England), called "Remington Steele", and in the episode, he was using a fake identity, and introduced himself to one person as "Milo Minderbinder".

I liked that show. It was the first most people saw of Pierce Brosnan, I think. His sidekick, played by Stephanie Zimbalist, was also a likeable character (in more ways than one).