Orwell + Political Reality
You of course will see that Orwell’s treatment of political reality was one of incredulity towards those who exercise power over us. In his short treatise on ‘Politics and the English Language’ he wrote these words:
“Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murders respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
The Political Powers exercise their authority over us by the communication of deceit and illusion. Noam Chomsky twists the knife further into the body politic, by saying that one of the principles of ideology is to never look at one’s own crimes. This lack of self-analysis in the minds of the powerful leads us to note the lack of contrition for the Gulags and Laogais of Stalinism/Maoism.
There are many other countries led by despots that we could cite, but suffice it to say, both Orwell and Chomsky’s analysis holds sway.
In the World of 0w1, the lack of social conscience is startling, but as everything is provided for by State for the citizens of Britain (and Europe). What then is there to rebel against? Why would you choose a dissident life? What would your tipping point be? For Strix and his friends, everything is supplied, save for freedom, and for them this is the point at which they depart from the State’s control and authority.
The political language of Strix’s world says, “Freedom is submission to the State.” This lie sounds so believable, to their many collaborators.
When can the State require the life of a citizen? Whenever the State adjudges [their] death useful to the State. “If sovereignty should say to the Citizen, ‘It is expedient for the State that you should die’, then die you must, since it is on this condition alone that [you] will have lived till then in safety, and since [your] life will have been no longer the gift of Nature, but a grant, and a conditional one, from the State.” GG van Prinsterer (Unbelief and Revolution) quoting JJ Rousseau’s ‘Social Contract’.
Hence freedom being submission to the State, but what if you do not believe that the State is the ultimate and absolute Reality? Then, as with Strix and his friends you must work to undermine the State and subvert its authority. For we cannot speak of freedom and submission in the same breath, as if they were equal, virtuous modes of Being. We can say and should shout it from the rooftops. “Freedom is freedom from the State!”
As for writers and artists, what is their role in this? Well, here’s a little wisdom from a Russian Filmmaker:
“art must transcend as well as observe; its role is to bring spiritual vision to bear on society.” Andrei Tarkovsky
