Difference between revisions of "Talk:George Orwell"
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
(his critique on class and socialism) |
(sympathized deeply with their goals BUT opposed intellectualized socialism as deeply dehumanizing) |
||
| Line 8: | Line 8: | ||
Then there is: | Then there is: | ||
*Orwell begins his critique on class and socialism in ''The Road to Wigan Pier'' [http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2004/07/class-and-empire-george-orwells-road_01.html] | *Orwell begins his critique on class and socialism in ''The Road to Wigan Pier'' [http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2004/07/class-and-empire-george-orwells-road_01.html] | ||
| + | |||
| + | 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] | ||
Revision as of 22:50, April 24, 2007
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]