Well, was he?
Well, was he?
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
I believe Charlie Chaplin had a similar moustache, and I don't think he was a fascist either.
I don't think he was a fascist. But I think he thought fascism could take over. He didn't see the impossibility of its utter stupidity being a long term state. Either that or he was an English double agent admiting the idiotic power of the fascist in order to entangle them in the ridiculous proposition of which they were capable. That's more likely.
Moves like that were not uncommon in the UK. The Episcopal church, for example, declared itself Catholic but not Roman Catholic, or Greek Orthodox. Thus they took on a platform that made the Roman Catholic fascists look ridiculos. Venice was finished and, of course, Spain also, not to speak of the vestiges in Germany. Today, the Episcopal church is an antifascist, antiracist institution and here to stay.
Here's Orwell on Chaplin's The Great dictator
Speaking of Chaplin in his role of The Great Dictator, George Orwell asks “What is Chaplin’s peculiar gift?” It is his power to stand for a sort of concentrated essence of the common man, for the ineradicable belief in decency that exists in the hearts of ordinary people, at any rate in the West. We live in a period in which democracy is almost everywhere in retreat, supermen in control of three-quarters of the world, liberty explained away by sleek professors, Jew-baiting defended by pacifists. And yet everywhere, the common man sticks obstinately to the beliefs that he derives from the Christian culture.”
--Film Review, The Great Dictator in Time & Tide, Dec 21, 1940
But here's Orwell 1n 1949.
The recent evidence about Orwell's life seems to show that our greatest modern political writer could embody glaringly contradictory positions.
Only four years ago, his image as Left-wing campaigner against state oppression took something of a battering when it was revealed that in 1949 he had secretly passed to the Government a list of 37 figures in public life whom he regarded as Soviet sympathisers.
On this list were names such as the film star Charlie Chaplin, the actor Michael Redgrave and the historian E. H. Carr.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2DziEKAKI
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"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
If you had to define Orwell's political leanings, he was a democratic socialist who mellowed in later life to a moderate labour orientation.
Also, Orwell had that toothbrush moustache in the 20s before people really knew who Hitler was, and it wasn't associated with fascism. It was a relatively popular style of moustache (Lord knows why) before Hitler kind of ruined it.
Last edited by OrphanPip; 12-03-2012 at 01:06 PM.
"If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia."
- Margaret Atwood
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
"As far as my personal preferences went I would have liked to join the Anarchists." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia page 116.
"In every country in the world a huge tribe of party-hacks and sleek little professors are busy 'proving' that Socialism means no more than a planned state-capitalism with grab-motive left intact. But fortunately there also exists a vision of Socialism quite different from this." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia page 104.
"If I had understood the situation a bit better I should probably have joined the Anarchists." George Orwell - The Collected Essays; Volume I page 289.
Seriously doubt that he was ever a fascist.
He wasn't.
Orwell hated fascism above all, which leads to the answer to this:
The article misses a ridiculously obvious point - Orwell knew that the USSR in 1949 bore no relationship to actual communism, and had become a fascist state. Given his authoring both 1984 and Animal Farm, it would be more surprising if he hadn't turned people in whom he suspected of collaboration.
Somewhat ironic, sure, but not contradictory to his political opinions at all.
Go to work, get married, have some kids, pay your taxes, pay your bills, watch your tv, follow fashion, act normal, obey the law and repeat after me: "I am free."
Anon