Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 17 April 2012

“Socialism is such elementary common sense that I am sometimes amazed that it has not established itself already. The world is a raft sailing through space with, potentially, plenty of provisions for everybody; the idea that we must all cooperate and see to it that everyone does his fair share of the work and gets his fair share of the provisions seems so blatantly obvious that…no one could possibly fail to accept it unless he had some corrupt motive for clinging to the present system. Yet the fact that we have got to face is that Socialism is not establishing itself. Instead of going forward, the cause of Socialism is visibly going back. At this moment Socialists almost everywhere are in retreat….There are, I believe, countless people who, without being aware of it, are in sympathy with the essential aims of Socialism…Everyone who knows the meaning of poverty, everyone who has a genuine hatred of tyranny and war, is on the Socialist side, potentially….For the moment, the only possible  course for any decent person…is to work for the establishment of Socialism. Nothing else can save us from the misery of the present or the nightmare of the future.”

George Orwell (1903-1950). Novelist and essayist. Old Etonian.  The extract is from his book “The Road to Wigan Pier” (1937), an account of industrial poverty in the north of England.

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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