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Thanks for the reply. I have read Down&Out and the odd essay in addition to the ones I mentioned. I have heard the shortened trope "Orwell was a socialist, ev

Thanks for the reply. I have read Down&Out and the odd essay in addition to the ones I mentioned. I have heard the shortened trope "Orwell was a socialist, even fought in the Spanish civil war, then became a vocal critique and disillusioned socialist" often enough so that my reply partly argued against this simplification. There's some hard-to-explain background for my comments: 1) The above-mentioned simplification: I grew up with socialism and fascism equally being put under the "totalitarianism" umbrella in media and education. In German we call it "Hufeisentheorie". There's probably some truth to this. But I incrasingly feel that for capitalism to appear "human", an exponentially growing amount of available natural resources and slave labour is needed. 2) The post-war generation of which i.e. my parents were a part; they were in a way the undertakers of mainstream leftism. 3) You hint at it: Fascism and capitalism tend to go hand in hand. We have just been brainwashed to forget about it. See US foreign policy in Latin America.

dalbasal 4y ago
>>I have heard the shortened trope "Orwell was a socialist, even fought in the Spanish civil war, then became a vocal critique and disillusioned socialist" I don't think the last part is true. ASAIK, Orwell remained a socialist all his life. I don't think he was disillusioned, because he wasn't a kool aid kind of guy at any point. Orwell died young, before the cold war so he didn't really weigh in on that dialogue. The terms and cliches we tend to use came after he died. In my opinion fascism courted, supported and leaned on capitalists, not really capitalism. The ideological view of capitalism (in the Rand/Hayek/Neoliberalism sense) was still new ATT.
- moritzwarhier 4y ago
  Yes that all makes sense to me. In hindsight I made some vague points partly because I misread your original comment. I am myself annoyed by some popular misconceptions about Orwell and his work. I had read some nuanced articles about him as well and they didn't all paint him in the way that I put in quotes. Regarding capitalism and fascism, I misleadingly wrote "you hint at it", but maybe we disagree here at least partly.
baybal2 4y ago

dalbasal 4y ago

>>I have heard the shortened trope "Orwell was a socialist, even fought in the Spanish civil war, then became a vocal critique and disillusioned socialist" I don't think the last part is true. ASAIK, Orwell remained a socialist all his life. I don't think he was disillusioned, because he wasn't a kool aid kind of guy at any point. Orwell died young, before the cold war so he didn't really weigh in on that dialogue. The terms and cliches we tend to use came after he died. In my opinion fascism courted, supported and leaned on capitalists, not really capitalism. The ideological view of capitalism (in the Rand/Hayek/Neoliberalism sense) was still new ATT.

moritzwarhier 4y ago
Yes that all makes sense to me. In hindsight I made some vague points partly because I misread your original comment. I am myself annoyed by some popular misconceptions about Orwell and his work. I had read some nuanced articles about him as well and they didn't all paint him in the way that I put in quotes. Regarding capitalism and fascism, I misleadingly wrote "you hint at it", but maybe we disagree here at least partly.

baybal2 4y ago