the second half of the book pretty much describes the failings of socialism
Posted on 08/11/2018 5:35:15 AM PDT by Chickensoup
thanx for the link vlad
I tried to post a reply on this topic but apparently the post violated protocol - perhaps because I included a link to a book I wrote titled “New Animal Farm: What Happened?” It is a satire based on the last election. I wrote the book as the primary drama unfolded. Not expecting a Trump victory in the beginning, I did not add a Trump character until midway through the book, but I did have him prevailing in the end. I finished the book about two weeks before the election.
I was in college during the 60s and for all practical purposes became a socialist. In a sense, I went through the same progression as did Orwell. My personal Spanish Civil War was reading about the Soviet-made political famine in the Ukraine during the winter of 1932-33. Also influential was Hedrick Smith’s book “The Russians” that described the reality of day-to-day life in the Soviet Union during the 60s and 70s. Another must read is “Assignment in Utopia,” by Eugene Lyons - the first journalist to expose the famine. Others covered it up, including Pulitzer-prize-winning Walter Duranty of the ever-august New York Times.
My journey toward a lifetime of unmitigated socialist joy was also interrupted by my experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer and English teacher in Ecuador. I was quickly disabused of the notion that my English degree meant anything in terms of useful knowledge, and I quickly learned that good intentions often bring unintended results - usually not good.
After getting certified to teach ESL at @60, I taught for 14 years in a public school and in an adult education program. Another reality check. I started writing while teaching writing. Trying to teach writing was one of the hardest things I’ve ever attempted but love doing it myself.
I really think that there are folks in this conversation who would enjoy the book. I won’t post a link because I fear the post will be consigned to the electron heap of history.
I think the uptick seems to be in very specific communities.
I recall that supposedly some of the people drafted into WWI couldn’t pull the trigger. They had no way to get ready for what it would be like to point a gun at someone and shoot. Now almost everyone has played a shooting simulation, and has seen 1000’s of shootings portrayed in other media so the thinking goes they now wouldn’t have that problem.
Freegards
Orwell got into hot water with his fellow Socialists over this book, and had to write a mea culpa at the end.
You could see why people thought Socialism is OK when you read of the coal miners not being paid for time until they showed up at the actual worksite, which was sometimes two miles away underground.
His description of sleeping with other workers in a room jammed with edge-to-edge beds was an eye-opener as well.
the second half of the book pretty much describes the failings of socialism
I think the uptick seems to be in very specific communities.
Bookmark
One of the most memorable ideas from that book is that many socialists are prone to envy and resentment. In other words, socialists are socialists not because they love the poor, but because they hate the rich.
What kicks the book out of this dark minutiae is the second half, wherein Orwell embarks on an analysis of where his own attitudes came from, child of the Middle Class as he was. The result was an incredibly unflattering picture of socialists and their objectivity, so much so that his publisher declined to publish it. In the next to last chapter he diverges into a criticism of socialists' view of a soulless, mechanized future in which The Machine rules over humanity that seems bizarre from a 21st-century viewpoint, not really even good science fiction. In the last he comes to a passionate advocacy of socialism the idea as opposed to its practices and its advocates, clearly motivated by his accurate vision of the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany. At the time of writing Hitler had only just come to power.
So it is in the analysis and not necessarily the conclusions that the strength of the book lies. It is not actually very clear what sort of idealistic view of socialism he was proposing, only that it was the "only" answer to fascism, capitalism having come to grief under the Great Depression. In fact, he would soon learn better.
and continues to change. The pronouncements by the ALA are horrifying.
another Marquand reader!
We are rare.
I agree. He describes the era well.
Just re-read through A Sub treasury of Humor Edited by Katherine White. and good old Prose and Poetry. Some great and some funny essays in both.
Both were staples on the shelves at home as a child.
“I so do wish there was a reading club that focused on political cultural books in my area.”
Start one.
Not familiar with them...good?
Looks funny and too true...
You wrote that?
Terrific! I will have to purchase it!
So happy to find others who love books and ideas here.
Wish you were all closer.
He would learn better,
This is a book by an author on a journey.
“In the next to last chapter he diverges into a criticism of socialists’ view of a soulless, mechanized future in which The Machine rules over humanity that seems bizarre from a 21st-century viewpoint, not really even good science fiction.”
Actually considering the predominance of AI technology today not such science fiction any more IMHO. He actually made an aside that could herald driverless cars.
The magazine needs to hire one more editor...one who knows about the correct use of the apostrophe...;-)
Tried that, no dice. Conservatives are thin on the ground here.
The magazine needs to hire one more editor...one who knows about the correct use of the apostrophe...;-)
________________
That was the chickensoup that laid that big egg.
To think that I homeschooled four on the finer points of grammar for 10 years each.
I continue to fail at being a good human being...
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