The Misappropriation of George Orwell

[Agnapostate]

Possibly the most simultaneously amusing and irritating trend I have encountered in recent years in political and economic discussion has been a blatant distortion of the political philosophy of George Orwell by free marketers, who erroneously cite him at every turn in order to justify their failed philosophy and criticize "socialism," which is misidentified as everything from government preservation of capitalism to Soviet state capitalism.

Excerpts and quotes from Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four provide a basis for an effective misappropriation of Orwell's work. Orwell was an ardent anti-authoritarian and anti-Stalinist, of course, but free marketers with little knowledge of political economy often mistakenly use his advocacy on that front to "argue" against libertarian variants of socialism, an enormous irony given Orwell's own democratic socialism and support of the anarchists and other libertarian socialists in the Spanish Revolution, combined with his military service in the Spanish Civil War. In Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, he expresses support for the aforementioned social revolution, in which horizontal federations of anarchist collectives were formed in several regions of Spain, and the means of production were collectivized and a libertarian socialist economy was established. He has this to say of the heavily anarchist region of Aragon.

I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one was among tens of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin, all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of the normal motives of civilized life--snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc.--had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class-division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned anyone else as his master.

His support is not isolated to the region of Aragon, as he has similar words of support regarding the anarchist region of Catalonia, and the city of Barcelona, then placed in the control of anarchist workers and citizens rather than capitalists or Stalinists It's apparent that this work is most indicative of his support for an economic program of libertarian socialism.

This was in late December 1936, less than seven months ago as I write, and yet it is a period that has already receded into enormous distance. Later events have obliterated it much more completely than they have obliterated 1935, or 1905, for that matter. I had come to Spain with some notion of writing newspaper articles, but I had joined the militia almost immediately, because at that time and in that atmosphere it seemed the only conceivable thing to do. The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags and with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties; almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Churches here and there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workmen. Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivized; even the bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said 'Senor' or 'Don' or even 'Ústed'; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade' or 'Thou', and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenos días'. Tipping had been forbidden by law since the time of Primo de Rivera; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor-cars, they had all been commandeered, and the trams and taxis and much of the other transport were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro, the loud-speakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night. And it was the aspect of the crowds that was the queerest thing of all. In outward appearance it was a town in which the wealthy classes had practically ceased to exist. Except for a small number of women and foreigners there were no 'well-dressed' people at all. Practically everyone wore rough working-class clothes, or blue overalls or some variant of militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in this that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for...So far as one could judge the people were contented and hopeful. There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine.

More than that, Orwell is known to have served in the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM in Spanish), an anti-Stalinist libertarian Marxist militia that was later disbanded by the "democratic" government. Orwell is believed to be the tall figure near the back in this photo that stands a head above his comrades.

What strikes me as most amusing about the rightist misappropriation of Orwell's work and legacy is its Orwellian nature. The idea of an anti-socialist using references to Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, works of an avowed socialist and anarchist sympathizer, to attack socialism when the socialist Orwell was attacking the anti-socialist Stalinism...ridiculous, and effectively the equivalent of screeching "freedom is slavery." And the double irony of the very same persons calling terms like "libertarian socialism" and "anarchist socialism" "Orwellian" in nature is absurd on its face!

Assuredly, the anti-socialist will be hard-pressed to distort Orwell's clear advocacy here if he/she wishes to maintain any semblance of credibility, though I don't doubt that some will attempt it nonetheless.

 

[Anguille]

Fanatics will see what they want to see in any text.
Look what they do with the the Bible and the Koran.

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

Orwell's opposition to totalitarianism is a double edged sword .

 

[Baruch Menachem]

This thread is now Gd, as it has risen from the dead.

My boy had to read animal farm for Sophmore English. So I got to re read it.

It is an interesting tract. Orewell was painfully honest, and it is an instructive read.

1984 also, painfully honest look at where things are going.

I wish all of us were as honest as Orwell

 

[amiam*]

This thread is now Gd, as it has risen from the dead.

My boy had to read animal farm for Sophmore English. So I got to re read it.

It is an interesting tract. Orewell was painfully honest, and it is an instructive read.

1984 also, painfully honest look at where things are going.

I wish all of us were as honest as Orwell

How about Brave New World as a destination that we are heading for?