Orwell the Leftist

[endicom]

American Thinker
Paul Gottfried
June 9, 2018

David Ramsay Steele, a libertarian activist, an author, and the editorial director of Open Court Publishing Company, has produced a truly extraordinary work on the English novelist and political critic George Orwell.  It's not the case that there aren't other studies of Orwell, whose two allegorical novels Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm are still widely read and whose strictures on totalitarian collectivism are well known, even if frequently ignored.  But the problem Steele addresses in Orwell, Your Orwell: A Worldview on the Slab is the stereotypical nature of biographical treatments of his subject.  Contrary to the overwhelming evidence that Steele adduces "that Orwell's key positions were held by many on the Left and usually by the majority," there is a veritable cottage industry for singing the praises of Orwell.  In these tributes Orwell is celebrated as a uniquely independent thinker and a "habitual dissident," who just happened to be a socialist until his last day on Earth.

More... https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/06/orwell_the_leftist.html

[Slide Rule]

I read The Road to Wigan Pier last month.

It was on Jordan Peterson's reading list.

No doubt that Orwell was a lefty. The book
was interesting but not sufficiently convincing.

:)

[endicom]

I read The Road to Wigan Pier last month.

I recall that he trashed socialists in that. Yet he remained one.

[Slide Rule]

I recall that he trashed socialists in that. Yet he remained one.

Orwell did expose a bit about socialists but pushes
Socialism over Fascism and Capitalism as the only
option.

Orwell discovered that socialists weren't for the poor
man at all. Socialists just hated the rich.

The left wing group funding the book added a large
section clarifying much that Orwell said.


It's a good read. Not political but of the work and
conditions he describes. Mining is a hard living.
:)

[goatprairie]

It's true Orwell never did abandon the dream of socialism. He just figured out that all the top lefties were mostly corrupt murderers while many lefties still revered the killers.
I've read "1984", "Animal Farm", and "Homage to Catalonia." The last book refers to the Spanish Civil War where Orwell fought for the  Loyalist/socialist government but came to despise the people running things for his side.
He still hung on to the idea that socialism was viable.  The dream dies hard in some people no matter how perspicacious they are about certain things.

[Slide Rule]

It's true Orwell never did abandon the dream of socialism. He just figured out that all the top lefties were mostly corrupt murderers while many lefties still revered the killers.
I've read "1984", "Animal Farm", and "Homage to Catalonia." The last book refers to the Spanish Civil War where Orwell fought for the  Loyalist/socialist government but came to despise the people running things for his side.
He still hung on to the idea that socialism was viable.  The dream dies hard in some people no matter how perspicacious they are about certain things.

Orwell wrote many books.

I will look into Homage to Catalonia

Thanks,
Al

[goatprairie]

Orwell wrote many books.

I will look into Homage to Catalonia

Thanks,
Al

You might want to check out a documentary made in 1937 called "The Spanish Earth." It is an ode to the socialists in charge of Spain and their operation of the war. The lives of average Spanish farmers is also discussed.
What is interesting is who narrates the thing. None other than Ernest Hemingway.
So when some people tell you Hemingway was apolitical, they're spreading lies. He was fully promoting the socialist side in the Spanish Civil War.

[Slide Rule]

You might want to check out a documentary made in 1937 called "The Spanish Earth." It is an ode to the socialists in charge of Spain and their operating of the war. The lives of average Spanish farmers is also discussed.
What is interesting is who narrates the thing. None other than Ernest Hemingway.
So when some people tell you Hemingway was apolitical, they're spreading lies. He was fully promoting the socialist side in the Spanish Civil War.

Hemingway was a lefty. No doubt about it.

:)