EP63: George Orwell

The Hated and the Dead

George Orwell is perhaps the most important journalist and writer of political fiction of the twentieth century. Though he only lived to 47, dying of tuberculosis in 1950, he did more in half a century than most would in three of four lifetimes. Reluctantly signing up, and then ceasing to be, an imperial officer in Burma, voluntarily entering destitution in Paris, and fighting for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, Orwell was never afraid to stare suffering and desperation right in the face.
He was also never one to run with a crowd; of all Orwell’s firmly held beliefs, in anti-imperialism, in freedom from oppression and opposition to totalitarianism, none were more important to him than the freedom to think for yourself. This has made him many enemies on the left, a place Orwell called home. The brilliant thing about Orwell as a political thinker is that most of the attacks levied at him, and the devices used to deploy them, resemble the sort of attacks directed towards the enemies of the totalitarian regime in 1984, his most read and celebrated novel.
But in a world free from Soviet domination- which Orwell devoted the last years of his life to criticising- what relevance does he hold? Had he lived a longer life, what would he have become? What would he think today? These are the central questions discussed in today’s show.
My guest for today is David Osland (@david__osland). David is an unabashed left-winger, and a journalist, who writes primarily for the website LabourHub.