George Orwell Is An Asshole With A Point

Ever notice how everyone loves George Orwell?

He was a pretty cool dude. He wrote a lot of famous books. He was a talented journalist. He documented the lives of the poor perceptively and with empathy. He forcefully opposed totalitarianism.

But he was also a dickhead. The Road to Wigan Pier shows both how talented and annoying Orwell was. The bulk of the book is a pretty heartbreaking account of the lives of poor British coal miners in the 1930s. But in the last chapter he critiques socialists (as opposed to socialism, which he's pretty much fine with). Mainly his point is that they can be alienating and they don't know how to message.

I do not think the Socialist need make any sacrifice of essentials, but certainly he will have to make a great sacrifice of externals. It would help enormously, for instance, if the small of crankishness which still clings to the Socialist movement could be dispelled. If only the sandals and the Pistachio-coloured shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian, teetotaller, and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City to do his Yoga exercises quietly!

I guess he's joking, but he doesn't get just how aggravating it is to hear that if you are, say, a yoga-doing vegetarian who wears a pistachio-coloured shirt.

This has modern relevance in the flaws of Clintonite centrism. Their contempt for outsiders is palpable. They think lefty outsiders make the Democrats lose. And they give the impression that they think they're lame.

But they have a point. Lefties can be a little exculsive (as either elites or outsiders) and that is used against us (Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas kinda makes this point). And a lot of progressive groups are doing some serious thinking about just how to present themselves and their ideas effectively. It's just hard to agree with the third-way types when they more or less call you a loser for being who you are.

And it's equally wrong, I think, for those of us on the left to get baited into this name calling. We call the third-way types corporate Dems, or Wall Street Dems, and neo-liberals with a sneer. Basically calling them the tools of business will only make them resent us more, though.

I hope this old politics of division within the Democratic party will end if Obama, who has sympathy for the struggles of both social insiders and outsiders, wins the nomination. His message is broad and inclusive (in much more than the racial sense that it's commonly labeled). I think he's highly sensitive to these grudges, but we'll see.