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Animal Farm
by George Orwell, C.M. Woodhouse
by George Orwell, C.M. Woodhouse
Someone (I think it was Christopher Hitchens?) once said that Orwell was one of the people who got everything right during the first half of the 20th century. Namely, he opposed both fascism and communism and advocated for a humanist, democratic socialism. In other words, capitalism is the disease, socialism is the cure ... but communism will kill the patient.
Anyway, I thought this book was pretty damn insightful and way more entertaining (i.e. less preachy) than I expected. In a weird way, it reminded me of Monty Python at their sharpest (the Judean People's Front!), which is maybe the highest praise I can give.
Anyway, I thought this book was pretty damn insightful and way more entertaining (i.e. less preachy) than I expected. In a weird way, it reminded me of Monty Python at their sharpest (the Judean People's Front!), which is maybe the highest praise I can give.
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Hi James, thanks for commenting!I suppose that technically the USSR was Marxist-Leninist rather than a pure form of communism. But the term is pretty commonly used =)
Also, Orwell was pretty clearly a democratic socialist. For example, in his essay Why I Write he said, "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for Democratic Socialism as I understand it."
I guess you could argue that Animal Farm itself is an argument against "the idea of collectivism" but I didn't read it that way. I think Orwell's description of the early days on the farm shows is a utopian vision and he presents the descent into totalitarianism as a tragic betrayal of the revolution's ideals.
At any rate, viva python!
Russia never achieved Communism. They had a Socialist government. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. So Hitchens was a little off. Besides Orwell was poking holes in the idea of collectivism the whole way through so how can it be said, from this text, that he was in favor of democratic socialism.
Love the Monty Python comparison "the only people we hate more than the Romans is the Peoples Front of Judea...wankers"