0:36 Intro. [Recording date: August 7, 2009.] Book starts by saying Orwell was right about the three big issues of the 20th century--imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism. Orwell was against the idea that the world would be ruled by white Europeans. Saw with great prescience that that wasn't going to last very long, anyway. As a colonial policeman in Burma, then part of the British Empire, he had seen the ugly side, the master/slave relationship as Nietzsche called it, and the sexual side of that; evident in Orwell's novel, Burmese Days. Most qualified and educated Burmese man would never be allowed to be a member of the English club; least educated Burmese woman would be admitted to the mansion by the back door. No one knows why Orwell resigned; but speculate that he felt that if he continued he would become a racist. Thrill of domination and thrill of being dominated; something wicked about Fascism. Orwell's Spanish involvement: in Spain in 1936, government elected that was Republican, hostile to the tradition of the monarchy, critical of the power of the Church, generally secular, left-leaning. Franco; Catalan, asked for military help of Hitler and Mussolini. Many went to Spain to fight as volunteers for the Republican army. Orwell was one of those. Orwell's anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, anti-racism, anti-Fascism, anti-Nazism. Also a Civil War in Spain within the left. Turned to Stalin's Russia for arms, which was viewed as having solved the problems, heaven on earth. Discovering that this was a lie was Orwell's third greatest achievement. Accused of undermining the anti-Fascist front by telling the truth. Czeslaw Milosz, greatest Pole of the 20th century, wrote famous book called The Captive Mind, best seller in the United States in the 1950, when he left Poland; got the Nobel Prize. Got hold of a pirated edition of 1984; amazed that Orwell could get it so right without having lived there. Orwell didn't live to see Milosz's praise, but had learned about it in Spain. Closing years of Orwell's life, ill, fighting tuberculosis. Number three, synthesis of previous two: able to diagnose and fictionalize and oppose these forces.

10:41 Orwell trumpeted a warning we still listen to. He was anti-imperialist, anti-Fascist, anti-Stalinist; what did Orwell embrace? What was he pro? He was a natural egalitarian, not much use for any form of privilege, bit of a Puritan, strict but not humorless, suspicious of anything overly ornate or the flummory of religion; fond of the English people. How Britain underdevelops Burma, French; Coming Up for Air, written in Morocco; fought in Spain, got shot in the throat; spoke several Burmese regional languages and also Hindi. Liked the decency of the English people, thought they were humane and had an innate sense of fairness, generosity; so nice you could even make socialists of them. He was a socialist till the end of his life. When he went to Spain, ended up in a smaller more radical group, not exactly Trotskyist group but leftist coalition. The midnight of the century, military pact, Stalin and Hitler; Stalin couldn't believe it when Hitler invaded. Hitler's exchange: leave Europe to him and Britain could have India. Trotsky predicted the pact and that it would break down.

16:11 Spanish Civil War: transcendent international event of that generation. Intellectual elites volunteered to fight, risk their lives. Hard to imagine that the great writers of today would do this. Football player, Pat Tillman, volunteered to enlist, killed in Afghanistan. Analogy is with support of many European intellectuals for the Greek War of Independence: Lord Byron. True that many British intellectuals at least visited Spain at the time even if they didn't fight there; ranks of international brigade were largely made up of Jewish garment workers from the east end of London, Welsh and Scottish coal miners, etc. Labor movement of Germany go under to Hitler without a shot being fired; same in Austria, barely any resistance. Great achievements of socialism just fall to fascism; drew the line with Spain. "They shall not pass." Did prevent Fascism from taking Madrid. Personal as well as political tragedy. Orwell took on people of this prestige at the time: right to prevent Fascism but wrong to say you have to do it as a communist; accused of every kind of treason and lying. Working title of 1984 was The Last Man in Europe. Orwell remained a fairly modest person. "The power of facing"--Orwell's phrase, in essay "Why I Write"--always wanted to be an independent writer. Literary ability and a power of facing unpleasant facts. Unwillingness to duck, willingness to see facts that are not conducive to peace of mind.

23:08 John Adams, Thomas Jefferson. On the three critical points of the 20th century Orwell was right; one critical aspect he didn't get right: rise to prominence of America. Orwell had reservations about America that were partly cultural, though he admired aspects of it. He liked Mark Twain; didn't like American films or comic books. In touch with writers in America, Phillip Roth; died before he could travel down the Mississippi. Opening sentence of 1984: "It was a bright cold day in April and all the clocks were striking thirteen. John Adams had said "We have to make thirteen clocks all strike at the same time"--the Declaration of Independence won't work unless all thirteen colonies join at the same time. In book, in the dictionary of Newspeak, language of totalitarianism, at end of 1984, example of a sentence that couldn't be rendered in Newspeak: "We hold these truths to be self-evident...." Orwell was an admirer of Thomas Paine. Dies at age of 46.

26:58 Orwell's view of language. Thought that a lot of the work of an illegitimate power is done for it by slave volunteers who use the "wooden tongue"--removed all meaning from language. E.g., describing forced confiscation of agricultural workers as collectivization. Half the job is done if the government can get it called that. Euphemism, finding of a nice word for a nasty thing, e.g., "collateral damage," for civilian casualties. "Purge"; "appeasement"; "ethically challenged." Orwell dead set against that. Big Brother was meant to be affectionate, but we now know it as synonymous with evil and oppression. Strange that people use his name to mean the misuse of language--something "Orwellian" is a euphemism. People say Kafkaesque for things Kafka would have hated. If you describe a person as Orwellian you pay him a compliment; a situation, something very dark, pessimistic, so dark as without a door. Lionel Trilling or contemporary said of 1984 that the power of it was to completely foreclose any hope by the end; the last dissident has been tamed. If you can imagine it being that bad, you can imagine overcoming it. In that respect, the book is historic; impact on the Soviet sphere cannot be overstated. Czechoslovakia affected by reading Animal Farm and 1984. Only introduction Orwell wrote was for a pirated Ukrainian edition. Example followed by pirated editions in every known language; 1984 not yet available in Chinese. Animal Farm produced as a musical. Will be a North Korean edition. Animal Farm is banned in almost every Islamic country, in some cases because of its mention of pigs; but not all references to pigs are banned. In Iran it's banned as a satire on absolutism; Shah.

35:52 Left's reaction to Orwell: strange that an anti-imperialist, deep defender of the working class, strong egalitarian should be caricatured when talked about by the left. Deadly trap door built into the floor of the left mentality: quite right to value solidarity, fraternity, and things that keep the movement together; but undervalues the person who thinks for himself. Tribal. Peculiar to the left. Scab not a euphemism. Form of leveling rather than a form of egalitarianism: people who do such things do so for the lowest motive. Coburn, communist journalist; believed those who criticized the populist front in Spain were consciously doing the work of Hitler. Air quotes--"objectively" doing the work of the other side. Work from Spain didn't get printed in the influential New Statesman. The Left Book Club didn't publish him. Homage to Catalonia hardly read till after WWII. Animal Farm had a hard time getting a publisher because of a KGB agent. Cultural irony--friend of T. S. Elliot. Orwell in position of selling himself out to the other side and then denied these things. Orwell got the last laugh but not alive to hear much of it. Gave away to social democratic groups the publication rights for free. Would have made some money but wouldn't make the changes required by the Reader's Digest. Doesn't really seem to have cared.

43:36 Orwell reviewed Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. What were his views of Hayek? Role played by Hayek in 1944-1945 is now forgotten. Churchill made a speech in 1945 election, having led the British people through hard times, saying that plan of the Labour Party to institute national health care and other socializing reforms, might be all very well in its way but might require a gestapo of bureaucracy. British were in no mood to be talked to in that tone of voice. People with deficiency diseases from the difficulties of life during the war, end of war hoped to bring an end to that neglect; talking about health requiring a gestapo didn't sell well. It is said that that speech was suggested to Churchill by Hayek himself; certainly influenced by Hayek. Churchill lost the election, though not only because of the gestapo speech. Orwell asked to review The Road to Serfdom around that time. Short review, shows he's read and understood the book; begins by saying it's the wrong book at the wrong time; prefers the risks run by state intervention to the risks of laissez faire or capitalism. However, adds almost as an afterthought that it would be stupid to ignore the point Professor Hayek is making if a certain share of the national income, past a certain point that will become a tyranny. Orwell manages to be the one who is slightly out of step. Remarkable how much freedom we have preserved. The worst fears are not realized. Harold Laski, advisor to Labour Party, used to say: if you can plan for tyranny or state control, you can plan for freedom as well. People felt comforted; freeing people from terror that if they got sick at the end of their lives and lost everything, their homes, ability to care for their children: if you take that away by government intervention are you saying people are less free or more? More. Didn't hit diminishing returns till quite late; Orwell viewed as alarmist. Orwell: media; things like the nuclear state. "You and the Atom Bomb"--says the immediate fear is of annihilation; but there is another fear: what if this kind of weaponry makes the state completely invulnerable so there can never be insurrection or guerilla war? Marxism, withering away of the state. Common interest by nations in maintaining balance of terror; Cold War. Managers of it, Kissinger; managers of crisis in Beijing vs. subordinate movements in Czechoslovakia.

53:59 Orwell a leftist, but embraced by the right. Radical, certainly. Emergence out of family; father had made a living out of selling opium; no mention of any father in any of Orwell's works, distant, negative. Big Brother, but the obvious analogy for a totalitarian is the father. He's already coped with that; initial problem with Christianity--you had to love a father figure who you also had to fear. We know Orwell was fond of his mother; couldn't talk about his father. Hatred for imperialism, class snobbery. No choice but to move to the left. Sees Hayek critique--also sees the virtue of it. Truth teller. Writing about someone whose religious opinions he finds ridiculous--says something charming about the person. Willing to be fair to an individual.