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Originally Posted by Dockside
Pretty much my take on 1984. I don't give a fig about his political leanings or English upbringing. The book still has a powerful appeal to readers especially as we live in a world dominated by the Patriot Act and a government willing to shove laws down our throats even though most of the public doesn't want them.
My main beef with 1984 is every English class I had from 8th-12th grade assigned the book to the point where I hated the book. It wasnt till I got older I appreciated it again.
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You may not give a fig about George Orwell's English upbringing or his political leanings but the fact is this book is very much a fictionalised companion piece to 'Homage To Catalonia'.
A book which documents his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, British and American ambivalence (and to be totally frank support) of fascism during the Spanish Civil War was a disgrace. American businesses diverted oil tankers to fascist ports and the British Government gave key naval intelligence to the Nazis whilst allowing them to use Gibraltar during the conflict much to the shame of both countries.
This aspect of 'Homage to Catalonia' is often overlooked in favour of his disillusionment with authoritarian Stalinism which betrayed the true virtues of socialism but which never sung the praises of free market fundamentalism which many revisionists try to unconvincingly suggest. The cold reality is though Britain or America cared little about the holocaust of the Jews nor the execution of trade unionists and labour activists and America only intervened when Pearl Harbour and their own personal interests were attacked.
The bravery the Allies showed to fight fascism and evil must never be forgotten of course but the fact that Britain and America appeased fascism (and in many cases actively supported it) often is and this revision of an important part of history is a stain on both Britain and America.
Trying to separate politics from 1984 is like trying to separate Mickey Mouse from Walt Disney. It is a profoundly political book whatever way you look at it and it has nothing to do with Patriot acts or Governments 'shoving laws down people's throats'.
People who see in 1984 a critique of socialism are completely missing the point or have never read Karl Marx (probably both). Karl Marx wrote about the right of universal ownership of land and property in order to empower personal freedom, not to devour it.
This is why Orwell was a champion of the NHS but considered the Atlee Government's social security implementations to be too meek and mild which is strange because he is considered the most radical British Prime Minister of the 20th Century and certainly more radical than anything we have seen in the 21st. So Orwell saw his future as a conservative? Highly improbable, bordering on laughable if the subject matter wasn't so serious and relevant today.
Look at the 'war on terror', the 'war on drugs' and our new 'allies' in Russia and China for echoes of 1984 and the corporatist states we live in dominated by CCTV controlled not by the state but by private security firms. This is closer to the totalitarian state Orwell was alluding to, that which Marx warned of too, that where a tiny plutocracy lorded it over the majority through malice, divide and rule friction and hate. Stalinist Russia had such a secluded minority but so does modern day Russia with its billionaire's row in Moscow, the capitalist authoritarianism of China and the modern day London defined by deference to obnoxiously tainted money laundering and architecture as the city becomes increasingly defined by plated glass and shards as so many bitter, vanquished lives lie shattered beneath the surface.
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