|
documents relevant to George Orwell:
|
The sin of nearly all left-wingers from 1933 onward is that they have wanted to be anti-Fascist without being anti-totalitarian.
[Arthur Koestler, Critical Essays, 1946 ] |
introductory comments
down with fascism, up with fascism
“you are a fascist”
biographical notes
I came across this article today.
The article amused me because Orwell is so obviously a paid up member of the mentally sloppy left,
as reflected by the BBC and the Groaniad.
At least scanning that article plus comments is very instructive.
It is
incredible to watch members of the socialist cult squirming this way and that in order to justify, rationalise and assert
that their dopey base assumptions do not automatically lead to dictatorship.
I’ve been analysing Orwell recently, and I’m increasingly convinced he presents an excellent classroom
demonstration of the mental confusions of the socialist cult.
It is interesting that Orwell’s logic and
experiences in Spain led him to his hatred of his
very own system, which he then projected onto ‘communism’.
“ ...At the time of the Spanish Civil War,
anyone with as much political knowledge as can be acquired
from a sixpenny pamphlet on Socialism knew that,
if Franco won, the result would be strategically disastrous
for England; and yet generals and admirals who had given their lives to the study of war were unable to grasp this fact ...”
[1941, The lion and the unicorn: socialism and the English genius, section 4]
It proved to be just the reverse.
“... Socialism is the idea of equality, to the vast majority of people Socialism means a
classless society, or it means nothing at all ...”
[1938, Homage to Catalonia, p.104]
“... communists stood not on the extreme left, but on the extreme right ...”
[Homage to Catalonia, p. 56]
“... for years past the communists themselves had been teaching the militant workers
in all countries that ‘democracy’ was a polite name for capitalism ...”
[Homage to Catalonia, p. 69]
Meanwhile, Pope Pius XII, in 1939, was equating democracy with communism. [The Pope and Mussolini by David. I. Kertzer, p.386.]
“We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system
for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly
evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility
and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions.”
[1927, Adolf Hitler]
“... if we could drive Franco and his foreign mercenaries into the sea it might make
an immense improvement in the world situation, even if Spain itself emerged with a
stifling dictatorship and all its best men in jail. For that alone the war would have been
worth winning ...”
[Homage to Catalonia, p. 182]
That is, the end justifies the means.
down with fascism, up with fascism
In this section, Orwell is setting out his ideal for the socialist revolution in Britain after the War.
[Quotes from The lion and the unicorn: socialism and the English genius, Orwell, 1941]
“Inevitably the majority of industrial concerns will continue with much the same personnel as before, the one-time owners or managing directors carrying on with their jobs as State employees.”
Orwell rails on and on about the evils of ‘fascism’, in which he includes Germany and Italy.
But, of course, this is very similar to the way Italy and Germany were ruled.
“... It will shoot traitors, but it will give them a solemn trial beforehand and occasionally it will acquit them. It will crush any open revolt promptly and cruelly ...”
On the war:
“... But at any rate it is certain that with our present social structure we cannot win. Our real forces, physical, moral or intellectual, cannot be mobilised”"
“No real revolutionary has ever been an internationalist.”
That is, Orwell wants National Socialism, just like Oswald Mosley.
Notice carefully the Doublethink in Orwell’s proposals.
How Doublethink is tolerated in individual minds is a caution, or as Keynes put it:
“Marxian Socialism must always remain a portent to the historians of Opinion - how a doctrine so illogical and so dull can have exercised so powerful and enduring an influence over the minds of men, and, through them, the events of history.”
[The End of Laissez-Faire, 1926]
Nearly a century later, the puzzle remains!
“you are a fascist”
At the time, everyone knew that Hitler was a socialist.
“We are, in this respect only, in precisely the
same position of the Labour Party. They are called the
Labour Party with the International Socialist creed;
we are called the British Union with the National Socialist,
or Fascist creed. Our Movement and our name are purely
British. Our creed, on the other hand, is universal
but, being a national creed, in every country has a
character, policy, form, and method, suited to that
country alone.”
[Written answer from Oswald Mosley’s British Union, July
1939]
The Lefties use the word ‘fascist’ to mean capitalist, democracy, dictatorship, and on and on. They use it as a term of abuse.
The label Trotskyism was used in the same way in Spain. There, the communists went on about Trotskyism and Fascism.
This is leftist propaganda and absolutely nothing else. Socialists will do anything to hide their real intentions and their real history.
Another quote from Orwell:
“...but at the same time anyone who criticises communist policy from a left-wing standpoint is liable to be denounced as a Trotskyist. Is it then asserted that everyone professing revolutionary extremism is in Fascist pay?” [Homage to Catalonia, p. 177]
The Stalin show trials used similar Newspeak. Where do you imagine that Orwell got the term Newspeak? Fascism is a left-wing party generated by Mussolini.
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
The point is to destroy words, to stop analysis of the socialist cult.
Leftism is essentially revolutionary, though the Fabians like Blair, Brown, Miliband etc advocate slow-motion revolution.
The right wing is adaptive, traditional, pragmatic.
Notice the development of Newspeak in left-wing propaganda.
biographical notes
George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair. George Orwell is his pen name.
25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950; born in Motihari, Bihar, India.
Note that most of Orwell’s books were written before the second World War. Only Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four were written after the War.
- Novels:
- Burmese Days , 1934
A Clergyman's Daughter, 1935
Keep the Aspidistra Flying, 1936
Coming Up for Air, 1939
Animal Farm, 1945
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949
Narrative documentaries:- Down and Out in Paris and London, 1933
The Road to Wigan Pier, 1937
Homage to Catalonia, 1938
- Pamphlets include:
-
The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius, 19 February 1941.
Betrayal of the Left, 1941
Victory or Vested Interest? 15 May 1942, published with "Culture and Democracy""Fascism and Democracy" and "Patriots and Revolutionaries")
Talking to India, 1943
James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution, July 1946
The English People, 1947
British Pamphleteers Volume 1: From the 16th Century the 18th Century from Allan Wingate, spring 1948
bibliography
The lion and the unicorn: Socialism and the English genius
by George Orwell |
|
Penguin Books Ltd; reprint 1982
ISBN-10: 0140063277
ISBN-13: 978-0140063271
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com |
Homage
to Catalonia, George
Orwell
 |
 |
first edition: 1938, Secker and Warburg, London
reprint: 1952, Harcourt [page numbers quoted above from this edition. 230 pages of text.]
2003, Penguin, 0141187379, £4.79 [amazon.co.uk] {advert}
1980, Harvest, 0156421178, $10.40 [amazon.com] {advert} |
|
