Posted by jsm on April 23, 2001 at 08:12:18:
In Reply to: Lion and Unicorn posted by Mike Lloyd on April 22, 2001 at 22:12:19:
Very perceptive. Orwell was what you might call a Tory Anarchist. His vision of Socialism is in the last chapter of RTWP --- Freedom and Equality, and in most contexts he's prepared to sacrifice a lot of the first in return for the second. I don't think you can enlist him to the side of "traditional English values", though. He is often highly critical of many English institutions; basically, anything which isn't related to the working class. A lot of his railing against sandal wearers ought to be taken in context -- he was a member of the ILP, after all. Orwell didn't associate with non-Socialist British people, which is why he doesn't say so many bad things about them.