George Orwell christened as Eric Arthur Blair, was born on 25 June 1903. Oft-quoted, Orwell is synonymous with the voice that dissents while the adjective Orwellian stands for the totalitarian or authoritative form of government. Let’s understand the political philosophy of Orwell.
Scouring through the internet, there are a plethora of materials on Orwell’s works, particularly, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, which have criticized totalitarianism and spoken in support of democratic socialism. Now, let’s understand totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is a form of political system that borders on dictatorship. It diminishes the role of opposition and sways its control on the masses through state-controlled pieces of machinery; media being one of them. Democratic socialism, on the other hand, values the ideals of freedom, equality and democracy.
Born in Motihari, situated in the Bengal presidency of British India, Orwell was raised in England. In his all too short life of 46 years, Orwell was into many things. Right from a sergeant fighting wars to a journalist, teacher, and bookseller; Orwell worked in the BBC for three years after getting wounded in the Spanish Civil War and several other trysts in the Second World War. Blair was inspired to take the pseudonym, George Orwell from the River Orwell. He shot to fame with Animal Farm published in 1945, a novella in the fashion of a beast fable. In the hope of fairness, farm animals rebel against human farmers. Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in 1949, a few months before Orwell’s death. His last completed work centres on the authoritarian socialist regime of the Soviet Union. An ardent supporter of democratic socialism, he criticized similar practices in the Nazi regime. This June, Nineteen Eighty-Four completed 75 years since its publication.
Like Orwell, his heroes aren’t from the myths and lore but are grave and contemplative. The characters, in sensing the nearness of an apocalypse; the dystopian political regime is not far-fetched. His works stay with the readers, hauntingly reminding them of the present that was predicted long before. What you confront can always be changed. Quoting Orwell’s famous lines from the 1938 New Leader essay: “ It is not possible for any thinking person to live in such a society as our own without wanting to change it.”
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