Big Brother & Snobbery of 2004

George Orwell detested both imperialists and parlor leftists. He recognized that oppression can turn the oppressed into rotten people too ...

Orwell is famous for his intellectual honesty and his willingness occasionally to anger his allies on the left. Stories about honest people always inspire, whether they are set in second-century Rome or sixteenth-century China.

Unlike many writers, Orwell didn't commit the reverse snobbery of overpraising the downtrodden. He understood that one product of domination is that it can turn the dominated into rotten people too. Orwell also still matters to the extent that the ability to see through bogus rhetoric still matters.

When Winston Smith finished reading the occult "inner-party" book in Nineteen Eighty-Four, he noted: "The best books ... are those that tell you what you know already."

What Do We Really Know Already?