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Quote of the Day: Orwell on Wells
In 1941, Orwell wrote an essay “Wells, Hitler and World State.” The whole essay, contained in Volume 2 of his collected essays, is worth reading. Here’s an excerpt.
All sensible men for decades past have been substantially in agreement with what Mr. Wells says, but the sensible people have no power and, in too many cases, no disposition to sacrifice themselves. Hitler is a criminal lunatic, and Hitler has an army of millions of men, aeroplanes in thousands, tanks in tens of thousands. For his sake a great nation has been willing to 0verwork itself for six years and then to fight for two years more, whereas for the common-sense, essentially hedonistic world-view which Mr. Wells puts forward, hardly a human creature is willing to shed a pint of blood … [skipping about ten lines] … The people who say that Hitler is Antichrist, or alternatively the Holy Ghost, are nearer an understanding of the truth than the intellectuals who for ten dreadful years have kept it up that he is merely a figure out of comic opera, not worth taken seriously.
Today, we’re in the post-Obergefell age. The “party of science” has moved on to the transgender lunacy which pretends that XX can become XY and XY can become XX. The supposed moderate Democrat, Joe Biden, is supporting a law that would require you to treat men who think they’re women as women and vice versa. You would be required to lie and affirm this. It’s a vicious combination of 1984 and That Hideous Strength. Title IX would effectively be repealed as even semi-elite men could easily defeat elite women in most track and field events.
Published in Group Writing
Everything is upside-down!
The following is also from the original Orwell essay:
Like many English Leftists, Well’s fascination of intellect blinded him to reality. Orwell’s Liberalism could see the big picture, and most of his arguments still ring true today. If only our critics would learn Orwell, we could have rational discussions with those on the left.
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When my eyes first scanned your post title they read “Orson on Welles” which made me think… well, something different…
Great post. Thanks Richard.
Your mind can only be yours, in order for someone to be truly brainwashed they have to fully co-operate with their controller. They have to willingly surrender their own judgement of truth and reality to another… Gender is a social construct, is a lie that can be refuted in every bathroom stall – but only if the believer doubts the judgement of his science.
Once you have a believer accepting your judgements – even over the evidence of their own lying eyes, you can begin to educate the believer in other sciences – like socialist economics, or cargo cults of stimulus and created jobs. The first step is to disable critical thinking, then the nonsense can be poured in and devoured with the devotion of zealot.
This is why gender politics is so important – its the Rubicon a follower must cross to become a trusted zealot.
When the world is flipped on its head, keep your eyes on the fools…
On the one hand, I think anyone who believes such blatant nonsense will believe anything. It is an ideal litmus test for faith in fashion. To believe it is to be ruled by fleeting culture.
On the other hand, it’s a result of centuries-long philosophical drift; ideas as old as history but empowered by the securities and material temptations of affluence. How easy it is to believe that humanity is essentially mind alone when so many popular figures of proud intellects put forth this model. If the body is just a shell to be disposed or exchanged, per the theories of ancient gnostics made new again, then perhaps it logically follows that one’s sex should be subject to total self-creation. If God is just a Divine Watchmaker or a wishful dream, then what innate purpose or form should restrict the individual will?
In either case, or both, we near the end of the slippery slope. There are many more fantasies and defilements to come. But corruption is only prologue to more open and aggressive evils. Even warlords engage in lies, but violence is the preference of the powerful.
Definitely a good time to read Humani Generis again.
My son and I just read it in his biology class, and he’s writing about it this coming week. It refutes existential materialism and reminds us that human reason is a useful tool but subject to human failing…