George Orwell Reading
A little more than half-way through his article “Politics and the English Language”, George Orwell wrote something that made me stop and think. He wrote, “All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.” As someone who generally hates anything to do with the realm of politics, this statement threw me. If every issue is a political issue then theoretically, I should hate every issue. What Orwell wrote is very true, our language has evolved do to politics and what is considered politically correct. There have even been several retelling of stories to make them politically correct (i.e. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs becomes Snow White and the Seven Vertically Challenged Men). Even though these were written as satire, the writing of stories such of these is a political issue. It is amazing how one sentence can make me, or any person, re-evaluate their beliefs. I can no longer say that I hate politics, because now I see how politics is encroaching on every issue.
winchesteruni said,
February 11, 2008 at 11:21 pm
“man is a political animal” – Aristotle. Politics deals with the problem of how to get others to do things we want them to do by persuasion, by compromise, by example, by trade and by contract but also by deception and by force. In this sense everything is indeed political, not just what happens on the formal political agenda.
chris horrie said,
February 14, 2008 at 10:46 am
There is nothing wrong with hate. It is good to hate politics. Hate is not ThoughtCrime. It depends WHAT you hate. I hate ignorance and laziness (in myself as well as others) and wish I could find stronger hatred that would prompt me to more determined action. But I am to quote only “human, all too human”. Aversion to hatred (or strong emotions generally) is a sign of conformity, moral death and mental slavery.