George Orwell’s Letter on Why He Wrote ‘1984’ In 1944, three years before writing and five years before publishing 1984, George Orwell penned a letter detailing the thesis of his great novel. The letter, warning of the rise of totalitarian police states that will ‘say that two and two are five,’ is reprinted from George Orwell: A Life in Letters, edited by Peter Davison and published today by Liveright. Plus, Orwell's advice to Arthur Koestler on how to review books. To Noel Willmett 18 May 1944 10a Mortimer Crescent NW 6 Dear Mr Willmett, Many thanks for your letter. You ask whether totalitarianism, leader-worship etc. are really on the up-grade and instance the fact that they are not apparently growing in this country and the USA. I must say I believe, or fear, that taking the world as a whole these things are on the increase. Hitler, no doubt, will soon disappear, but only at the expense of strengthening (a) Stalin, (b) the Anglo-American millionaires and (c) all sorts of petty fuhrers° of the type of de Gaulle. All the national movements everywhere, even those that originate in resistance to German domination, seem to take non-democratic forms, to group themselves round some superhuman fuhrer (Hitler, Stalin, Salazar, Franco, Gandhi, De Valera are all varying examples) and to adopt the theory that the end justifies the means. Everywhere the world movement seems to be in the direction of centralised economies which can be made to ‘work’ in an economic sense but which are not democratically organised and which tend to establish a caste system. With this go the horrors of emotional nationalism and a tendency to disbelieve in the existence of objective truth because all the facts have to fit in with the words and prophecies of some infallible fuhrer. Already history has in a sense ceased to exist, ie. there is no such thing as a history of our own times which could be universally accepted, and the exact sciences are endangered as soon as military necessity ceases to keep people up to the mark. Hitler can say that the Jews started the war, and if he survives that will become official history. He can’t say that two and two are five, because for the purposes of, say, ballistics they have to make four. But if the sort of world that I am afraid of arrives, a world of two or three great superstates which are unable to conquer one another, two and two could become five if the fuhrer wished it.1 That, so far as I can see, is the direction in which we are actually moving, though, of course, the process is reversible. As to the comparative immunity of Britain and the USA. Whatever the pacifists etc. may say, we have not gone totalitarian yet and this is a very hopeful symptom. I believe very deeply, as I explained in my book The Lion and the Unicorn, in the English people and in their capacity to centralise their economy without destroying freedom in doing so. But one must remember that Britain and the USA haven’t been really tried, they haven’t known defeat or severe suffering, and there are some bad symptoms to balance the good ones. To begin with there is the general indifference to the decay of democracy. Do you realise, for instance, that no one in England under 26 now has a vote and that so far as one can see the great mass of people of that age don’t give a damn for this? Secondly there is the fact that the intellectuals are more totalitarian in outlook than the common people. On the whole the English intelligentsia have opposed Hitler, but only at the price of accepting Stalin. Most of them are perfectly ready for dictatorial methods, secret police, systematic falsification of history2 etc. so long as they feel that it is on ‘our’ side. Indeed the statement that we haven’t a Fascist movement in England largely means that the young, at this moment, look for their fuhrer elsewhere. One can’t be sure that that won’t change, nor can one be sure that the common people won’t think ten years hence as the intellectuals do now. I hope 3 they won’t, I even trust they won’t, but if so it will be at the cost of a struggle. If one simply proclaims that all is for the best and doesn’t point to the sinister symptoms, one is merely helping to bring totalitarianism nearer. You also ask, if I think the world tendency is towards Fascism, why do I support the war. It is a choice of evils—I fancy nearly every war is that. I know enough of British imperialism not to like it, but I would support it against Nazism or Japanese imperialism, as the lesser evil. Similarly I would support the USSR against Germany because I think the USSR cannot altogether escape its past and retains enough of the original ideas of the Revolution to make it a more hopeful phenomenon than Nazi Germany. I think, and have thought ever since the war began, in 1936 or thereabouts, that our cause is the better, but we have to keep on making it the better, which involves constant criticism. Yours sincerely, Geo. Orwell [XVI, 2471, pp. 190—2; typewritten] 1. and 2. Foreshadowings of Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Thank you for posting, @john316 . It adds a little more context to 1984. Things have changed since 1944, and certainly, the USA is tottering towards autocratic rule...The past 4 years of TRumpism is evidence of that decline.
Would seem that indeed, this, is the future we have to look forewords to. And we come to it despite all the clear warnings others have given to us.
LOL Why a "fereigner" has such vitriol hate for a country in which he does not reside and for a leader he obviously despises, we may never know. One thing ya might have though, sounds like "TDS" (Trump Derangement Syndrome). Jeepers creepers!!! (With the emphasis on "CREEP"). LOL
Biden was the least worst 2020 Presidential candidate, not that I could have voted for him...and as for the VP a heartbeat away from becoming President...well, I'll let Randy Rainbow sing her praises over that pious carbuncle on the @ss of @merika. Mike has his own problems....flies keep mistaking him for a midden pile.
My criticism of some of the things that America has done, is doing, and is likely to do, does not necessarily constitute vitriolic hate...perhaps your perception of hatred is overly sensitive. America is like an ageing pug who still can punish, but who is resting on past laurels (WW1 and WW2)...there are other contenders who would have America's world champion belt, and the TRump administration is just accelerating America's decline... There is no rule that individuals can only despise the leadership of one's own nation...Americans have no difficulty in expressing their disapproval of the leaders of other nations...why should America be treated like a protected species??? One of life's unexplained mysteries...but it never seems to stop some monkeys from hurling spitballs at me anyway. lol You say TDS like it's a bad thing....fortunately enough TDS affected voters managed to get to the polls and cast their vote, consigning TRump to the rubbish bin of history...TRump's eviction from the Oval Office and the WhiteHouse may alleviate TDS somewhat for some...one can only hope...and put an electoral wooden stake through that lard@ss orange vampire. Meh....such clever kindergartenesque name calling...
^^^^^ Seems certain entities must have a vested interest in the final destruction of America. And, no. Trump is not without soil, but a far better choice than over-the-top, gimme your sh*t COMMUNISTS!!!!!
Terrible sorry. Terrible sorry for the name tossing! You'll have that on occasion... Anyone can and should have their own opinions. That's really just a small piece of what we stand to lose here. To be a sovereign individual with opinions and to move about in a "free" country- there's more freedom of individuality here than there is in any socialist/communist country that I know of. It would be nice to be in a place where you aren't shut down for being a party to certain "politically incorrect" notions that rub against the communistic democrats who own Hollywood, the media, the web, and now it looks like, finally, the government. Conservative platforms are being shutdown. That really goes a long way to protecting free speech, now, doesn't it? Guess most of the globe is envious to the few freedoms that we have left here, and are hell-bent on making this nation a crappy communistic nightmare that the rest of the world is experiencing. All you have to do is look at the news of "impoverished" nations like oil -rich Mexico. (Couple hundred miles or less to the border from here) Sure, most of the citizens are poor as dirt- much like the majority of the world- and live in fear, while the elite laugh at them, but whose fault is that? I don't foresee a mass exodus from the U.S. to Mexico, no matter how bad things get here. Not that Mexico is necessarily a commie nation, mind you, like Russia, China, Venezuela, etc... lemme see "your papers" just to go to the next state. Who in blue blazes would EVER vote (votes are moot, seems anyway) for a party that brings you THAT??? No thanks.
While you gentlemen are arguing over which talking head is worse than the other and continue to focus on the prevailing subject matter at hand, I would just like to add that there's no difference between any country in the end if they are all ruled by corporations that are in bed with each other. I think the true enemy we'd like to point at doesn't have a single face or personality to attack, so it's easier to rip apart the televised version of reality. When this is all over, we won't be any less enslaved if we had protested and scorned a political figure. The time is long past due that we recognize the inherent problem within our society such as depicted and described by Orwell.
Well that video was painful to sit through. I will never forgive you for exposing me to such idiocy and bad taste. So your retort is name calling and a bad song? You are everything I have come to expect from Democrat supporting imbeciles. Maybe post an articulate response? I want to thank you for confirming what we have all long suspected. IE: propaganda works on the weak minded.
BAM!!!!! YOU HIT THE NAIL SMACK-DAB RIGHT ON TOP OF THE HEAD, SIR!!!!! BRAVO, AND THANK YOU. According to ol chel, it would seem that "evil America" is so much more foul than any other nation ever to exist. As if the Spaniards didn't obliterate the Inca or Mayans. The British empire was totally benevolent, don't you know??? How about Germany invading every couple decades, or the Japanese empire that could have covered most of the globe??? Virtually every damned country ever to exist has invaded or decimated their foes. I guess that our "evilness" is so pervasive that everyone is clamoring to get here...
A cornucopia of logical fallacies 1. Straw man argument: That is not a position that I hold. Why claim that is my point of view, and then beat a misrepresented viewpoint that I don't hold to death??? 2. The Spaniards destroyed the Incan, Mayan and Aztec 'civilisations',by conquest, and inserted their own $hitty religious beliefs into the subjugated native peoples, in place of superstitious beliefs not much more sillier than their conquerors'. 3. Straw man argument again. No reasonable person, with a basic knowledge of history would rationally claim that the British empire was totally benevolent...any more than anyone could reasonably claim that US foreign policy was, is, or will be, "totally benevolent" 4. and 5. Hyperbolic rhetoric...7 decades have passed since Germany's last inclination to invade, and it was with considerable reluctance that it committed combat troops to America's 'war on terrorism'. Similarly Japan, being the only nation on Earth to be on the receiving end (thus far) of thermo-nuclear warfare, courtesy of the USA...has had no inclinations to foreign adventures since...not even the USA has been able to drag them in any meaningful way into recent 'coalitions of the willing' in furtherance of US foreign policy...The claim that Japan even could, let alone would have "covered most of the globe" is absurd on its face. They barely had the resources, to expand their operational sphere of influence as far as they did...Japan had no ambitions of world domination...though undoubtedly American and other propagandists weren't loath to exploit that fanciful idea back in the day. 6. That other nations and non nation states have warred against each other, doesn't exculpate the USA's accountability for its military and foreign policy adventurism sins...propping up third world dictators, abandoning allies, conducting covert destabilising operations. America has never quite mastered the art of fighting asymmetrical warfare...and the soon to be ex-president has simply provided America's enemies with ample propaganda gold, in telegraphing his intent of retreating from Iraq, and Afghanistan...it seems that the lessons of America's humiliating defeat in South Vietnam, have still not been learned; certainly not by this soon to be ex-Commander- in Chief. 7. Not 'everyone' is clamouring: though in truth, many are prepared to seek a life in a country, any country, that is comparatively less of a $hithole country than the one that they are fleeing from. The USA is not the only destination for asylum...nor is it the welcoming country for immigrants that it once was.
Anyone read "It Can't Happen Here." by Sinclair Lewis? It it yet another dystopian prediction of society. It was written in 1935 and it pretty much nails us today.
Haven't read that, but I have to wonder how many other dystopian tales have been written but haven't proven true. Yet? Basically, if enough monkeys get to create and have a few millenia, one might eventually write a basic reader. See Spot Run?
It is available free as a download... It Can't Happen Here For those who would rather read summaries of the book, rather than the book itself: It Can't Happen Here Chapter Summaries | Course Hero Interestingly, Sinclair Lewis was also the author of Elmer Gantry...a book about faux evangelical nutbaggery, and scumbaggery...his observations on scamvangelists back in the day are just as relevant today...tRUMP is surrounded by them as flies swarming around a dung heap.
