One thing which is worth mentioning is that he hates Communists and Marxists in general only slightly less than he hates fascists, partly because they’ve tainted socialism in the eyes of a great many otherwise well-meaning people. One rapid but fairly sure guide to the social atmosphere of a country is the parade-step of its army. A military parade is really a kind of ritual dance, something like a ballet, expressing a certain philosophy of life. The goose-step, for instance, is one of the most horrible sights in the world, far more terrifying than a dive-bomber. It is simply an affirmation of naked power; contained in it, quite consciously and intentionally, is the vision of a boot crashing down on a face. Its ugliness is part of its essence, for what it is saying is ‘Yes, I am ugly, and you daren’t laugh at me’, like the bully who makes faces at his victim. Why is the goose-step not used in England? There are, heaven knows, plenty of army officers who would be only too glad to introduce some such thing. It is not used because the people in the street would laugh. Beyond a certain point, military display is only possible in countries where the common people dare not laugh at the army. The Italians adopted the goose-step at about the time when Italy passed definitely under German control, and, as one would expect, they do it less well than the Germans. The Vichy government, if it survives, is bound to introduce a stiffer parade-ground discipline into what is left of the French army. In the British army the drill is rigid and complicated, full of memories of the eighteenth century, but without definite swagger; the march is merely a formalized walk. It belongs to a society which is ruled by the sword, no doubt, but a sword which must never be taken out of the scabbard. Between 1941 and 1943, Orwell worked on propaganda for the BBC. In 1943, he became literary editor of the Tribune, a weekly left-wing magazine. He was a prolific polemical journalist, article writer, literary critic, reviewer, poet, and writer of fiction, and, considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture. And when he had beat him out, He beat him in again; He beat him three times over, His power to maintain. [1] John Tenniel's illustration for Through the Looking-Glass.

The Lion and the Unicorn: An Anniversary Commemoration The Lion and the Unicorn: An Anniversary Commemoration

The English Revolution - The argument is made for an English democratic socialism, sharply distinct from the totalitarian communism of Stalin. Orwell gives a sweeping trenchant review of the current political scene in England then in 1941. All the parties of the left are incapable of reform, the Labour Party most of all since it is the party of the trade unions and therefore has a vested interest in the maintenance and flourishing of capitalism. The tiny communist party appeals to deracinated individuals, but has done more to put the man in the street off socialism than any other influence. Here are a couple of generalizations about England that would be accepted by almost all observers. One is that the English are not gifted artistically. They are not as musical as the Germans or Italians, painting and sculpture have never flourished in England as they have in France. Another is that, as Europeans go, the English are not intellectual. They have a horror of abstract thought, they feel no need for any philosophy or systematic ‘world-view’. Nor is this because they are ‘practical’, as they are so fond of claiming for themselves. One has only to look at their methods of town planning and water supply, their obstinate clinging to everything that is out of date and a nuisance, a spelling system that defies analysis, and a system of weights and measures that is intelligible only to the compilers of arithmetic books, to see how little they care about mere efficiency. But they have a certain power of acting without taking thought. Their world-famed hypocrisy—their double-faced attitude towards the Empire, for instance—is bound up with this. Also, in moments of supreme crisis the whole nation can suddenly draw together and act upon a species of instinct, really a code of conduct which is understood by almost everyone, though never formulated. The phrase that Hitler coined for the Germans, ‘a sleep-walking people’, would have been better applied to the English. Not that there is anything to be proud of in being called a sleep-walker.Here one comes upon an all-important English trait: the respect for constitutionalism and legality, the belief in ‘the law’ as something above the State and above the individual, something which is cruel and stupid, of course, but at any rate incorruptible. lı yıllarda İngiltere'de yaşamış biri olarak Orwell'in Britanyalı/İngiliz toplumunu çok iyi analiz ettiğini ve toplumsal yapı ile ilgili öngörülerinin tutarlı olduğunu düşünüyorum. Arzuladığı; büyük stratejik sanayi kuruluşlarının ve arazilerin ulusallaştırıldığı, minimum ile maksimum gelir farkının 10 katı aşmadığı, eğitim sisteminin devletleştirildiği demokratik sosyalist sistem gerçekleşmese bile savaş sonrası iktidar olan İşçi Partisinin sosyal güvenlik ve sağlık sistemini güçlendirdiğini ve eğitim sistemini bir nebze iyileştirdiğini 1950'deki ölümünden önce kendisi de görmüş oldu. Lakin, sömürgeleri olan Hindistan, Güney Doğu Asya ve Afrika ülkeleri bağımsızlıklarına kavuşmasına rağmen, ne yazık ki kapitalizm odaklı emperyalist muhafazakar yönetim aynı elitler tarafından hala devam ettirilmektedir.

THE LION AND THE UNICORN: SOCIALISM AND THE ENGLISH GENIUS THE LION AND THE UNICORN: SOCIALISM AND THE ENGLISH GENIUS

Britanya, Büyük Britanya, Britanya Adaları, Birleşik Krallık ve çok heyecanlı durumlarda Albion) hakkında yazılmış üç denemeden oluşuyor. Kendi ülkesine ve toplumuna çok sert eleştiriler yönelten Orwell, sosyalist dünya görüşüne sahip bir birey olarak ülkesinin sol aydın s��nıfına da özeleştiri yapmaktan kaçınmıyor. Başta Chemberlain olmak üzere devlet adamları, bürokrasi, politikacılar topun ağzında. Özellikle İspanya İç Savaşı’nda Franco yanlısı muhafazakar politikacılar, 2. Dünya Savaşı öncesi İtalya’yı silahlandıran ve Hitler’den zarar gelmeyeceğine inanan dönemin devlet yönetimini hedefine alıyor. Yurtseverliğin ve ulusal bağlılığın karşı konulmaz gücü tanınmaksızın modem dünya kavranamaz diyen Orvell, milliyetçilik belirli çevrelerde yok olabilir, uygarlığın belirli düzeylerinde var olmamış olabilir, fakat pozitif bir güç olarak onun yanında yer alabilecek hiç bir şey yoktur hatta Hıristiyanlık ve Uluslararası Sosyalizm onun yanında bir zerre kadar zayıf kalır düşüncesini savunuyor. This is an excellent long essay on Orwell's solution for making England / the UK a more decent place to live for everyone, a fairer place, a more equal place. The ideas still need to be implemented and it says a lot about the political development in the UK that the suggested reforms are further away than ever. This is where things become more difficult for reviewing purposes: I can see Orwell’s logic, and how the socialist system could have worked, but this doesn’t make it the only effective path (and we know with hindsight it proved not to be), or that, if it had been established, it would have provided a successful system after the war. His points about socialism in wartime are valid, but a capitalist government can achieve the same things by demanding production (or offering money in return for it) quite easily. We live in a capitalist state, but not an entirely free-market one – the government still has leverage, albeit through capitalistic means, and ultimately this is in large part the approach that they actually implemented.the State, the common people will feel, as they cannot feel now, that the State is themselves. They will be ready then to endure the sacrifices that are