Orwell on pacifists
July 21, 2008
This from the man who wrote 1984:
"The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States ..."
(From Orwell's Notes on Nationalism in May 1945)
Take that, pacifists.
Interesting to see that even back then anti-American and anti-western sentiment was rife.
I found the above quote in this old Slate article from 2004 by Christopher Hitchens: Unfairenheit 9/11, The lies of Michael Moore. Well worth a read if you think Michael Moore even knows that the word 'honest' means.
"The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States ..."
(From Orwell's Notes on Nationalism in May 1945)
Take that, pacifists.
Interesting to see that even back then anti-American and anti-western sentiment was rife.
I found the above quote in this old Slate article from 2004 by Christopher Hitchens: Unfairenheit 9/11, The lies of Michael Moore. Well worth a read if you think Michael Moore even knows that the word 'honest' means.
David says:
July 25, 2008 @ 10:14 — Reply
Hey this blog's alive again, kind of.
Yeah so-called "pacifism" is in effect often just aggression disguised as something else (similar how socialism which while it often appears well-intentioned on the surface, when you dig deeper you find it's a form of expressing dominance and subjugation and forced slavery on others). I wanted to say "pacifism is aggression" but that sounds a little, um, Orwellian, ha ha. In reality the world is a tough place out there and sometimes the only way to create civilized peace is by fighting the enemies that attack you ... ironically that sounds a bit like saying "war is peace" but with perhaps the opposite intended ironical connotation.