George Orwell

I decided today to profile one of the most prolific and underappreciated men of the 20th century: George Orwell.

From Wikipedia:

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 [1] [2] – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. Noted as a novelist, critic, political and cultural commentator, Orwell is among the most widely admired English-language essayists of the 20th century. He is best known for two novels critical of totalitarianism in general, and Stalinism in particular: Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Both were written and published towards the end of his life.


Animal Farm and 1984 are two of my favorite books of all time. The wikipedia article describes these books as critical of Stalinism and Totalitarianism. This is true, but I think that these books are more in criticism of man's greed for power, and therefore can be compared to many times in history. I think, these books and this man's brilliance are more important than ever.

Do yourself a favor and read those two books, Animal Farm in particular. To hold you over here are some quotes from Orwell that are as insightful as they are timeless and harrowing:

"Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket."
"All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. "
"So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot. "
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
"Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. "
"Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac."
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
"Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness. "

I will work harder,
'thew
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LINKS
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- This had me nearly piss myself.
- Amazing, this computer magic!
- Preach on brother! Pt1 & Pt 2 Not Safe For Work (NSFW)
- Those of us who know the internet know that this is very, very sad.
- That's so friggin cool
- Bring back the OTA.
- Okay, on this one, I may have peed a little.(NSFW)
- Seriously? We give these people a forum on TV? She doesn't know whether the earth is flat or not. Oh wait, looks like this includes our lawmakers as well!
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MUSIC
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I saw an amazing movie last night at the Ritz in Vorhees called Once. Its a beautiful film, and I implore you to see it if you love music at all. No video on youtube can do justice to its beauty but here's a live performance by the 2 stars of the film: