Oddly enough, I did that recently as well. It's like Orwell had a time machine, especially when he describes the perpetual War stuff on the edges of the region.
Oddly enough, I did that recently as well. It's like Orwell had a time machine, especially when he describes the perpetual War stuff on the edges of the region.
Yes! GoldsteinтАЩs book within the book is fabulous. Orwell packs in so much into so few pages. I find 1984 insanely dense, in the best possible sense.
Here's a question for you - and a big reason why I'm reading Catalonia - the anarchists took control of the region after the government fell apart. But, thanks to Soviet undermining they eventually lost it. I get the sense they were stabbed in the back.
What interests me is the idea of people finding space to take control because the government has failed in that area. With Catalonia, it was geographical. With the internet and technology, those borders seem to matter a lot less.
Do we have similar opportunities now? And will reading experiences like Orwell's better prepare us?
Good question, and yes. Orwell is always good for business. Slightly off topic, I just read his 1935 review of Tropic of Cancer, which I thought was off the mark. Orwell seems to me to dismiss Miller as just a dirty mind, while overlooking his impassioned call to responding to the worldтАЩs misery by laughing in the face of it and choosing to live life to the fullest.
IтАЩve read Matt say that we make too many references to Orwell, and I appreciate MattтАЩs effort to keep discourse civil, but I believe any effort to assess, тАЬWhere Is This All HeadedтАЭ we should use Orwell & the Stalinist period as guides. (MUCH to my chagrin, IтАЩm poorly versed in Mao/China)
There is an amazing piece of recursively illogical gymnastics that Frank Luntz performs redefining the term "Orwellian" during an interview with Terry Gross of Fresh Air many years back now. Luntz of course trying to reframe the term to mean "honest and truthful". It is classic Luntz.
To exemplify of all the negative connotations of "clever", Frank Luntz is worth a thousand pictures.
Seth: As far as describing Luntz, "all trick and no trade" is as pithy as it is accurate!
This is the guy that framed estate taxes as "death taxes" and the act that gutted the Clean Air Act as the "Clean Skies Initiative." If you have ever used "climate change" to describe global warming, you have fallen prey to Luntz's reframing.
Another book to read! Fantastic. Laughing in spite of it all is one of my favorite things. It's a good way to resist.
I know a little bit about China. From what I understand, they developed along collectivist lines naturally (thanks to the dangerous rivers that dominated their early history). Then you have ideas like the Mandate of Heaven (if bad things happen the government is no longer in heaven's favor) and the cyclical nature of their dynastic periods (always advancing upwards but in a corkscrew pattern of collapse and restoration, if that makes sense?).
Homage to Catalonia is amazing-and showcases OrwellтАЩs ability to see through media perpetuated bs and convey it to the public-on all sides of an issue.
Oddly enough, I did that recently as well. It's like Orwell had a time machine, especially when he describes the perpetual War stuff on the edges of the region.
Orwell didn't need a time machine. He was just an extremely astute observer of human nature.
Yes! GoldsteinтАЩs book within the book is fabulous. Orwell packs in so much into so few pages. I find 1984 insanely dense, in the best possible sense.
Here's a question for you - and a big reason why I'm reading Catalonia - the anarchists took control of the region after the government fell apart. But, thanks to Soviet undermining they eventually lost it. I get the sense they were stabbed in the back.
What interests me is the idea of people finding space to take control because the government has failed in that area. With Catalonia, it was geographical. With the internet and technology, those borders seem to matter a lot less.
Do we have similar opportunities now? And will reading experiences like Orwell's better prepare us?
Good question, and yes. Orwell is always good for business. Slightly off topic, I just read his 1935 review of Tropic of Cancer, which I thought was off the mark. Orwell seems to me to dismiss Miller as just a dirty mind, while overlooking his impassioned call to responding to the worldтАЩs misery by laughing in the face of it and choosing to live life to the fullest.
IтАЩve read Matt say that we make too many references to Orwell, and I appreciate MattтАЩs effort to keep discourse civil, but I believe any effort to assess, тАЬWhere Is This All HeadedтАЭ we should use Orwell & the Stalinist period as guides. (MUCH to my chagrin, IтАЩm poorly versed in Mao/China)
There is an amazing piece of recursively illogical gymnastics that Frank Luntz performs redefining the term "Orwellian" during an interview with Terry Gross of Fresh Air many years back now. Luntz of course trying to reframe the term to mean "honest and truthful". It is classic Luntz.
To exemplify of all the negative connotations of "clever", Frank Luntz is worth a thousand pictures.
Sounds like one of those people that's all trick and no trade.
Seth: As far as describing Luntz, "all trick and no trade" is as pithy as it is accurate!
This is the guy that framed estate taxes as "death taxes" and the act that gutted the Clean Air Act as the "Clean Skies Initiative." If you have ever used "climate change" to describe global warming, you have fallen prey to Luntz's reframing.
Another book to read! Fantastic. Laughing in spite of it all is one of my favorite things. It's a good way to resist.
I know a little bit about China. From what I understand, they developed along collectivist lines naturally (thanks to the dangerous rivers that dominated their early history). Then you have ideas like the Mandate of Heaven (if bad things happen the government is no longer in heaven's favor) and the cyclical nature of their dynastic periods (always advancing upwards but in a corkscrew pattern of collapse and restoration, if that makes sense?).
Anywho. Yay history!
I've been getting back into Orwell as well. Making my way through Homage to Catalonia - the first page had me tearing up!
Homage to Catalonia is amazing-and showcases OrwellтАЩs ability to see through media perpetuated bs and convey it to the public-on all sides of an issue.