Books

George Orwell

Date: 4th December 2016

Orwell is another great influence on my life. I first read 1984 15-20 years back and it really blew my mind, I can still remember it so clearly. Perhaps it is cliche but it it's the truth, I cant think of many better books for a young mind.

Though it took me many years to shake of my socialistic tendencies, in retrospect this little number really gave me the tools to deal with large number tricky situations.

The ideas on the left are very seductive because they are couched in the language fairness, tolerance & compassion. It easily disarms even the most agile of minds. The most common forms of this thinking normally talk of equal oportunity, minority rights, redistributionr etc... It is hard to argue against it without looking souless prick in social situations such as dinner with friends & family.

What Orwell did for me, especially in Animal Farm is to cut through this BS and really see what this instinct is all about. Orwell himself thought it was about totalitarianism and favoured social democracy. I think he was wrong there, unable to see past the evils of his time. Who could?

I think it goes deeper.

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04dec16   admin