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“As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me. They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are 'only doing their duty', as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted law-abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it. He is serving his country, which has the power to absolve him from evil.”
-- George Orwell, "The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius"
When we began our walk-thru for "1984", we noted the divisive issue over whether Orwell was a lefty or anti-lefty. If one judges only by the novel, the conservatives would seem to hold the clear advantage while socialist-leaning liberals have a tough uphill battle to fight. It is pretty clear that Orwell's dystopia is modeled on Soviet communism, which would seem to suggest that Orwell might be more of an Ayn Randian (forgiving any possible anachronisms).
However, based on what little I have gleaned from his "The Lion and the Unicorn", liberals can rest easier on the faith that Orwell is not a latent plutocrat. Socialism is a broad concept. Just because one is a liberal and favors universal health care, it does not mean that you are a closet Stalinist, and apparently Orwell was indeed one of these anti-totalitarian socialists, but a self-proclaimed socialist nonetheless. Whether this is the final word on the question, I cannot say. I have not even read this essay, much less surveyed all his works and utterances.
_ _ _
The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism And The English Genius is a 1940 polemic essay by George Orwell. It expressed his opinions on the situation in wartime Britain. The title alludes to The Lion and the Unicorn, in heraldry. The content sheds some light on the process which eventually led Orwell to the writing of his famous dystopia, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It expressed his opinion that the outdated British class system was hampering the war effort, and that in order to defeat Hitler, Britain needed a socialist revolution. Therefore, Orwell argued, being a socialist and being a patriot were no longer antithetical, they became very much complementary. As a result, in Orwell's vision at the time, "The Lion and the Unicorn" would become the emblems of the revolution which would create a new kind of Socialism, a democratic "English Socialism" in contrast to the oppressing Soviet model - and also a new form of Englishness, a Socialist one free of oppressive colonial peoples and of the decadent old ruling classes. (Orwell specified that the revolutionary regime may keep on the royal family as a national symbol, though sweeping away all the rest of the British aristocracy).
-- Amazon
.
-- George Orwell, "The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius"
When we began our walk-thru for "1984", we noted the divisive issue over whether Orwell was a lefty or anti-lefty. If one judges only by the novel, the conservatives would seem to hold the clear advantage while socialist-leaning liberals have a tough uphill battle to fight. It is pretty clear that Orwell's dystopia is modeled on Soviet communism, which would seem to suggest that Orwell might be more of an Ayn Randian (forgiving any possible anachronisms).
However, based on what little I have gleaned from his "The Lion and the Unicorn", liberals can rest easier on the faith that Orwell is not a latent plutocrat. Socialism is a broad concept. Just because one is a liberal and favors universal health care, it does not mean that you are a closet Stalinist, and apparently Orwell was indeed one of these anti-totalitarian socialists, but a self-proclaimed socialist nonetheless. Whether this is the final word on the question, I cannot say. I have not even read this essay, much less surveyed all his works and utterances.
_ _ _
The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism And The English Genius is a 1940 polemic essay by George Orwell. It expressed his opinions on the situation in wartime Britain. The title alludes to The Lion and the Unicorn, in heraldry. The content sheds some light on the process which eventually led Orwell to the writing of his famous dystopia, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It expressed his opinion that the outdated British class system was hampering the war effort, and that in order to defeat Hitler, Britain needed a socialist revolution. Therefore, Orwell argued, being a socialist and being a patriot were no longer antithetical, they became very much complementary. As a result, in Orwell's vision at the time, "The Lion and the Unicorn" would become the emblems of the revolution which would create a new kind of Socialism, a democratic "English Socialism" in contrast to the oppressing Soviet model - and also a new form of Englishness, a Socialist one free of oppressive colonial peoples and of the decadent old ruling classes. (Orwell specified that the revolutionary regime may keep on the royal family as a national symbol, though sweeping away all the rest of the British aristocracy).
-- Amazon
.
