As my loyal readers know, George Orwell plays a very important role in terms of my political beliefs as Orwell was, IMHO, neither liberal or conservative but rather distrustful, to say the least, in terms of how governments rule, no matter what kind of government the entity may be due to how language and intent are intertwined in legitimizing the government in question, something brilliantly articulated in Politics and the English Language, an essay everyone should read to see why this concept rings true.
With this in mind, the Alternet article linking Churchill to Orwell is a must read to see why Orwell is more relevant than ever, no matter what political stripe a person might be in the year of our lord 2017.
Thomas Ricks: Oddly enough, I suspect for Orwell, it began with his love of personal observation. Even a child, he loved observing nature, and that continued throughout his life. If you read his diaries, he had a habit of just writing down what he physically sees around him, what he’s thinking about, what he’s hearing people talk about—just basic observation. I think for Orwell, that becomes a part of departure, that human freedom begins with the right to perceive and to trust your own perceptions.
Of course, Orwell as an adult, bangs up against Stalinism, which says, ‘No, we will tell you what to think. If you’re a good member of the Communist Party, you will believe what we tell you to think. We will decide what is right and what is wrong. We will decide what the facts of the matter are.’ That’s where Orwell breaks with Stalinism, but he doesn’t break with the left. He remains a socialist all his life.
Yours truly disagrees with the issue that Orwell was totally leftist due to his great essay describing how the left and right manipulate language to their own ends. Another reason why yours truly breaks with this otherwise terrific piece lies in Homage to Catalonia, Orwell's take on the Spanish Civil War where Fascism and Communism collide with predictably dire results.
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