Posted by Bolly on June 07, 2002 at 12:01:39:
In Reply to: Help!!! I need to know who George Orwell's greatest enemy or opponent was and why. posted by Diana on June 06, 2002 at 19:36:44:
Fascism - Orwell's long-standing 'bete-noir' stood for almost everything Orwell was against: imperialism, capitalism, totalitarianism and generally wasn't very nice.
Imperialism - Orwell saw the exploitation first-hand in Burma when he worked there as a police officer for the British Empire.
Police - 'In an argument between a worker and a policeman, I know whose side I am on' (very badly misquoted).
Capitalism - because he saw poverty first-hand (see Down and Out in Paris and London, Hop Picking, etc) and realised that there was enough money to go round, but that capitalist greed withheld it from the poor.
Nationalists - Orwell was a patriot (it took a war for him to realise it), but he kept his hatred of nationalism.
'Parlour Bolsheviks' - 'fashionable pansies' like Auden and Spender (the latter later became a friend!). He saw high-brow lefties as being detrimental to the socialist cause he never forgot.
There are others, but I can't really think of them at the moment and don't want to spend bloody hours at the screen of this computer. This is very general and if it's for school and you quote me, then at least make sure you've read quite a bit because if not, you'll get grilled. It is also open to debate so don't take me as gospel, even though I'd be more than welcome for someone to try and disprove what I've written. Also, Orwell changed a lot (see the Spender thing in the thirties/fourties where he changed his mind and became friends with a man he earlier professed to hating) so don't think this is totally definitive - like anything human.