Posted on 08/13/2021 10:52:16 AM PDT by PROCON
Seventy-five years ago, in August 1946, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” was published in the United States. It was a huge success, with over a half-million copies sold in its first year. “Animal Farm” was followed three years later by an even bigger success: Orwell’s dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
In the years since, Orwell’s writing has left an indelible mark on American thought and culture. Sales of “Animal Farm” and “Nineteen Eighty-Four” jumped in 2013 after the whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked confidential National Security Agency documents. And “Nineteen Eighty-Four” rose to the top of Amazon’s best-sellers list after Donald Trump’s Presidential Inauguration in 2017.
As a philosophy professor, I’m interested in the continuing relevance of Orwell’s ideas, including those on totalitarianism and socialism.
Early career
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair. Born in 1903 in colonial India, Blair later moved to England, where he attended elite schools on scholarships. After finishing school, he joined the British civil service, working in Burma, now Myanmar. At age 24, Orwell returned to England to become a writer.
During the 1930s, Orwell had modest success as an essayist, journalist and novelist. He also served as a volunteer soldier with a left-wing militia group that fought on behalf of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. During the conflict, Orwell experienced how propaganda could shape political narratives through observing inaccurate reporting of events he experienced firsthand.
Orwell later summarized the purpose of his writing from roughly the Spanish Civil War onward: “Every line of serious work I have written since 1936 has been, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theconversation.com ...
Well read on..
The author comes out of academia and is obviously a leftist, which becomes obvious as you read his article.
He was also a guy with TB who smoked. Some cognitive dissonance was going on with that guy.
Demonrats use these books as training manuals
All Animals are Equal, Some are more Equal than others...
Orwell was right on the HOW totalitarian ideologues would operate, but he was wrong on who they would be, because who they are are exactly the ones spouting ideas Orwell was inclined towards - “democratic” socialists.
Cognitive dissonance, notwithstanding, the guy was a hell of a visionary.
It seems to turn out that democratic Socialism is oppression of the total totalitarianism type.
My tag line…
This is Big Brother speaking:
newspeak is now the official language of New America, because it has been devised by the Ministry of Truth to meet the ideological needs of NAMSOC, or New America socialism. So, be good little slaves and obey the thought police, because if you commit a thoughtcrime by opposing groupthink, you will be punished.
I am watching you!
bkmk
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