Orwell on Socialists

"The truth is that, to many people calling themselves Socialists, revolution does not mean a movement of the masses with which they hope to associate themselves; it means a set of reforms which ’we’, the clever ones, are going to impose upon ’them’, the Lower Orders." —George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, 1937

Orwell Updated

Conformity is diversity. Exclusion is inclusion. Toleration is oppression.

Ten Favorite Books

Keith Knight, host of the Don't Tread on Anyone podcast, interviewed me about ten of my favorite books. 

TGIF: From 1944 to Nineteen Eighty-Four

Friday's TGIF was a reprise of one of my favorites: "From 1944 to Nineteen Eighty-Four." Enjoy!

Orwell on Nationalism

From George Orwell's Notes on Nationalism:

All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage -- torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians -- which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side . . . The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

HT: Glenn Greenwald, who HT'ed Hume's Ghost

TGIF: From 1944 to Nineteen Eighty-Four

I’m inclined to think of George Orwell and F. A. Hayek at the same time. Both showed great courage in writing the truth, undaunted by the consequences awaiting them. Both valued freedom, though they understood it differently.

The rest of TGIF is here.