ORWELL MATTERS
In 1972 I was 16 years of age and working alongside my brother as a Shoe Repairer for William Timpson Ltd. At around five thirty one evening Mr Timpson himself descended unannounced upon the shop. My brother and I were washing our hands prior to going home. This Mr Timpson was incidentally the father of the winner of the recent Crewe and Nantwich by-election, and he enquired “are these boys are on a tea break?” My brother incidentally was then in his early twenties.
In 1972 I clearly identified myself as a Socialist. This position was not so much an ideological standpoint as the stuff of life itself. Given my life experience at the time no other position was possible.
However if there was one single influence outside of my life experience that influenced my politics that influence was George Orwell. The moral force and clarity of vision of Orwell’s writing represented a touchstone against which it was possible to test one’s developing political thought. In particular he laid bare the lie of Soviet Communism and argued for Democratic Socialism as the only viable alternative to capitalism.
I state all this because as I was looking up some of Orwell’s writing,* I was reminded of a conversation I had about two years ago when I mentioned Orwell to someone who identified themselves as being of the left. His response was “that bloody reactionary.” I was astonished, however it soon became clear that he had read little, if any, Orwell and it occurred to me that Orwell had become one of those writers like Dickens or Jane Austen, that people feel they ‘know,‘ without having to go to the trouble of actually opening a book. This strikes me as a great shame as Orwell continues to be acutely relevant and in particular his insight into the relationship between language and politics is, if anything, even more important today.
* A Hanging, see below.
In 1972 I clearly identified myself as a Socialist. This position was not so much an ideological standpoint as the stuff of life itself. Given my life experience at the time no other position was possible.
However if there was one single influence outside of my life experience that influenced my politics that influence was George Orwell. The moral force and clarity of vision of Orwell’s writing represented a touchstone against which it was possible to test one’s developing political thought. In particular he laid bare the lie of Soviet Communism and argued for Democratic Socialism as the only viable alternative to capitalism.
I state all this because as I was looking up some of Orwell’s writing,* I was reminded of a conversation I had about two years ago when I mentioned Orwell to someone who identified themselves as being of the left. His response was “that bloody reactionary.” I was astonished, however it soon became clear that he had read little, if any, Orwell and it occurred to me that Orwell had become one of those writers like Dickens or Jane Austen, that people feel they ‘know,‘ without having to go to the trouble of actually opening a book. This strikes me as a great shame as Orwell continues to be acutely relevant and in particular his insight into the relationship between language and politics is, if anything, even more important today.
* A Hanging, see below.
