Talk:George Orwell
From Conservapedia
Orwell wrote an essay as the introduction to Animal Farm, a painfully obvious and blatant attack on Stalinism.
- It is "ironic" that the particular example of self-censorship Orwell referred to in the essay was the refusal of the left-wing and liberal press of the time to publish criticism of the Soviet Union [1]
On the other hand:
- throughout his life, Orwell remained a confirmed socialist and worked almost exclusively for socialist journals [ibid]
Then there is:
- Orwell begins his critique on class and socialism in The Road to Wigan Pier [2]
And this nuanced view:
- In the 1930s revolutionary socialists and communists were quite a bit more mainstream in English and American intellectual life than they are today. Orwell knew their arguments intimately, and sympathized deeply with their goals. Indeed, the first half of The Road To Wigan Pier is a blistering attack on the harsh working and living conditions of the English working class of his day. And yet he felt that intellectualized socialism, with its emphasis on absolute mechanization and total efficiency, was somehow deeply dehumanizing. [ibid]
International Socialist Review says:
- Orwell became a self-described socialist as a result of lessons learned early in life. His service as a colonial policeman in Burma turned him into a fierce anti-imperialist with a commitment to exposing oppression and championing the rights of the working class. But Orwell was also a controversial and contradictory writer who took diverse–sometimes courageous–positions over the course of his life that have left his work open to interpretation. He moved from firm anti-imperialist and working class politics to become a supporter of the British Labor Party and a critic of the left by the end of his life, including an almost obsessive focus on Stalinism. [3]
Edit summary
Sorry, I missed the comment about Animal Farm. Same thing goes, distorted communism, or Stalinism, perhaps, but not communism. --AngryCommunist 22:24, 4 January 2008 (EST)
- Not sure what you mean. People have been saying for years that Orwell wasn't talking about Communism in either of his best-selling novels Animal Farm or 1984. But that has always sounded to me about as credible as gay rights activists saying that they're "not trying to destroy traditional marriage".
- Communists lie, as part of their strategy. We Christians are "handicapped" by our need to tell the truth. Communists lie so they can get away with murder. --Ed Poor Talk 23:42, 4 January 2008 (EST)
- Orwell was a self-proclaimed socialist. Animal Farm was about proto-Stalinism, and Nineteen Eighty-Four was about authoritarianism. --AngryCommunist 17:04, 9 January 2008 (EST)
- Yep. --AngryCommunist 21:46, 9 January 2008 (EST)
Animal Farm and Wikipedia
- people can change the meaning of words and commandments over time to suit a totalitarian regime
That's been my experience at Wikipedia, where minority views on controversial topics are squelched completely while the censors claim that being neutral requires them to do this. --Ed Poor Talk 19:49, 30 August 2008 (EDT)
