OCEANIA AND AIRSTRIP ONE FIRING ATACMS INTO EAST ASIA: 4/4: The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War by Peter Stansky
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2024
⏱️ 5 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Socialist-Patriot-George-Orwell-War/dp/150363549X
Few English writers wielded a pen so sharply as George Orwell, the q
uintessential political writer of the twentieth century. His literary output at once responded to and sought to influence the tumultuous times in which he lived—decades during which Europe and eventually the entire world would be torn apart by war, while ideologies like fascism, socialism, and communism changed the stakes of global politics.
1942 London (Airstrip One)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchew with Professor Peter Stansky. |
| 0:07.0 | His new book is The Socialist Patriot, George Orwell, whose given name is Eric Blair, |
| 0:13.0 | but the son, the nomadiguer he takes upon himself early in his writing career is George |
| 0:19.0 | for that very English of Kings, Orwell for a river near his home. |
| 0:23.8 | George Orwell. |
| 0:25.0 | George Orwell in war. |
| 0:26.3 | The Cold War begins almost immediately after 1945, the end of the war, formally in 1948. |
| 0:34.0 | The question is, when did George Orwell discover the Cold War and what drove him to a despair even more so than animal farm? |
| 0:44.3 | Professor, you write that he was profoundly pessimistic when he approached 1984, which he published really near the close of his life. |
| 0:52.0 | He's suffering from tuberculosis and it will overwhelm him. |
| 0:56.0 | What drove his pessimism between 45 and 49? |
| 1:00.6 | Was there a single event? |
| 1:03.9 | No, well, I think what drove his pessimism was his experience in Spain, where he saw, led by the communists and the Russian influence, |
| 1:14.5 | that in a way, you know, betrayed the revolution. |
| 1:21.6 | As I say, I think what drove his pessimism was that people's love, leaders love of power, that they'll do almost anything in order to preserve, they personally, staying in power. |
| 1:38.3 | That's why I felt the only solution, the change of leaders. |
| 1:45.6 | When the Soviets suppressed the naval revolt, I think, at Kronstadt, I've forgotten the date, but very early on in its history, he felt that indicated that, that, you know, the state would go wrong. |
| 2:03.0 | So his optimism, I think, was driven by his love of the English people, and that he felt |
| 2:09.6 | that England would, you know, this famous definition of England in the Lion and the Unicorn, it's a family, but it's a family with the rural members in control. |
| 2:22.3 | And I think that suggests the two sides of his thinking. |
| 2:30.3 | So his pessimism was driven by the leader's love of power and his optimism was driven by that there would be a continual effort in England and hopefully elsewhere to make, to make, you know, a better society. |
| 2:52.6 | And, you know, we're very conscious now of both the pressures for increased egalitarianism |
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