Aside from the practical application of Orwell's essay when faced with a college writing assignment, what I found most interesting was the implications that his idea has on the way we might read political essays and speeches in the future. In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible. Fairly nasty realities are glossed over with euphemisms.
Latin words fall upon the facts like sot snow, bluring the outlines and covering up all the details.
The trick then becomes not in reading and understanding what the author is saying, but rather what he or she is not saying. Naturally this challenges us as writers as well. We must, in clear and simple terms, be able to voice what our position is. So much of the time we get away with big words, but no substance. The real issue is not so much in how we express our thoughts, but in the thoughts themselves, that is were the fogginess lies much of the time.