George Orwell Quotes
There is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one side stands more of less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction.
Orwell, George. "Looking Back on the Spanish War." New Road, 1943.
In the 1920s through the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1963, Southern politicians labled all efforts for desegregation as “socialist” or “communist”. What is less known it that this canard goes back to the slavery argument BEFORE the Civil War. This document was relatively widely distributed in the South to the literate part of the public (Even the white population had high illiteracy rates in the South—even in modern times it is higher than the rest of the nation.) In this case the author actually claimed that many Northern State legislatures were socialist controlled as was the House of Represented; and many Southerners actually believed him. Even into the 21st century Southern conservatives were claiming that pro affirmative action politicians like President Obama were socialists and some people actually believed that also.
His indictment was rejected by the American voters when they rejected Ryan and Mitte Romney in the election of 2012. This quotation illustrates one of the problems of ideology in politics. Ryan “indicted” everything about progressivism in effect saying to the voters that there is not one progressive idea or analysis that might be useful or even important to the body politic. The same thing happens when ideologues on the left claim that there is nothing of value in conservative thinking. In reality many of the greatest facets of America can be traced to progressive ideas and many to conservative ideas. The United States has been an amalgam of political ideas taken from the entire range of human thinking the world over.
He was referring to the public unrest and dissatisfaction when an middle, poor or impoverished class is ground down by rigid interpretation and contract laws so that people in debt can rarely get out. He argues that this was a stark reality before most revolutions and a primary cause.
Eric Arthur Blair, known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, biting social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
