[MD] Speaking of intellectuals

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Ant recently]
It was strange to see recently that Platt not only put forward George Orwell as
one of his intellectual heroes but to also agree with the great socialist
writer, Robert Tressell, that "those who work have a right to own what they
work to produce."

[Arlo]
Interesting, too, because of Orwell's stauch argument for "democratic
socialism". This from Wikipedia...

"Orwell's political views changed over time, but there can be no doubt that he
was a man of the left throughout his life as a writer. His time in Burma made
him a staunch opponent of imperialism, and his experience of poverty while
researching Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier turned
him into a socialist. "Every line of serious work that I have written since
1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for
democratic Socialism, as I understand it," he wrote in 1946."

What's compelling to read about Orwell's views is that they shatter the typical
party dribble about "everything left of center is communism". Orwell was in
adamant opposition to Soviet Communism, but a lifelong voice for the Left and
the Labour Party. He opposed the creation of the state of Israel, and (this
still on Wikipedia) argued FOR the federalization of Europe.

The overview of his political leanings ends with this, "In keeping with the
practice of the time, Orwell used 'Communist' to refer to the Soviet-aligned
Communist Parties, where 'Stalinist' would be the more common term today.
Similarly he used 'socialist' to refer to the ideology shared by himself, the
Communist Parties, and other groups such as Trotskyists and anarchists, rather
than to refer to a position closer to the political centre than Communism. Many
people mistakenly assume that Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm are
'anti-Communist' in the sense of rejecting the revolutionary left."

Maybe its a Sign of the Apocolypse that he is one of Platt's intellectual
heroes.

Arlo