Things Worth Remembering: Orwell Saw This Coming
Days after Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor, Orwell’s ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ feels more relevant than ever.
“In a way it is even humiliating to watch coal-miners working,” Orwell wrote, after a harrowing visit deep underground. “It raises in you a momentary doubt about your own status as an ‘intellectual’ and a superior person generally. For it is brought home to you, at least while you are watching, that it is only because miners sweat their guts out that superior persons can remain superior.”...
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GEORGE ORWELL WOULD HAVE DESPISED ZOHRAN MAMDANI BECAUSE OF THE CULTURAL GAP BETWEEN HIS SOCIALISM AND THE ACTUAL WORKING CLASS, CHARLES LANE WRITES. (NOAM GALAI/GETTY IMAGES)