OK, I do read multiple books simultaneously. Another book that I’ve been reading along with Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities is George Orwell’s Why I Write. Sometimes, whenever I get bored with one, I switch to another. I prefer reading the latter because its writing is more journalistic and loose. Anderson’s is far too fast-paced and dense, containing too many ideas within one particular section. Quite dizzying and requires more time to chew. Anyway, both deserve to be on the top of anybody’s bookshelf, including mine.

Source: UniversityPressBooks.com

I bought Orwell’s book last Sunday when I happened to visit UC Berkeley and decided to drop by the university press’ book store. Well, I decided to buy the book because of its cover, which says,

Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

Wow, that’s something profound, I said to myself. I’ve got to buy it. I’ve never thought of “political language” as “poisonous” as this. I have lived years with a self-professed “political scientist” (not a full-timer, though, only occasionally) and have many friends who are political analysts, politicians, and professors of Political Science. They all sound OK to me, not too flowery, don’t use too much euphemism. They have their own idealisms and may also live like me within “a small world full of idealistic notions of how the world should have been.” Or, perhaps I was too naive not being able to see such things. (Whatever.)

As I read it through, this tiny pocketbook of 120 pages comprises of four sections: Why I Write, The Lion and the Unicorn, The Hanging, and Politics and the English Language.

Here are the points that spoke to me.

1. Why I Write

Orwell believed that all writers are driven by these four motives:

(1) Sheer egoism (long to be talked about, remembered after death, and idealistic toward a certain goal without any financial considerations –except for journalistic ones).
(2) Aesthetic enthusiasm (have a specific perception of beauty and have pleasure in the ability of creating an impact through words and other aesthetic elements).
(3) Historical impulse (in his own words, “desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.”)
(4) Political purpose (in his own words, “desire to push the world in a certain direction; to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.”)

2. The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius

He criticizes how England is a country divided into “rich” and “poor,” and the ruling class’ ability has been decaying. Only a few people possess the access to property and financial power, and those people inherit their status, which explains why many of them do not fit to rule based on their intelligence capacity. Only in England, he says, the intellectuals are ashamed of their “English”ness.

In the second part of this section, Orwell talks about the Labor Party’s movements, which is a revolution in this monarchy. It is his wish to see England outgrows the system at that time and to move forward to a more mature democracy based on socialist tenets.

3. The Hanging

Orwell witnesses a hanging in Burma, which makes him think hard about a human being’s value. He said, “I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive.” This essay is a satire, in which he also describes how relaxed the atmosphere is and how the spectators are able to enjoy the day without even blinking.

4. Politics and English Language

In this own words, “… political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. … Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.” He further divided such proses as “pacification,” “transfer of population or rectification of frontiers,” and “elimination of unreliable elements.”

He detests the fact (in his opinion) that “political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” I, too, prefer the other way around. Truth, honesty, and accountability are noble and they separate us from the rest of living creatures in the universe. If we cannot guard and cultivate these traits within ourselves, how can we call ourselves civilized creatures?

Politics, however, just like any other things in the world, can be used for the greater good or the greater misery. Just be more blatant about what we all want to head in the future. George Orwell and I will highly appreciate it.