"fascistic disposition" paragraph

[jbor]

on 12/5/03 1:12 AM, Otto at ottosell at yahoo.de wrote:

>> on 11/5/03 6:04 AM, Otto wrote:
>> 
>>> For example: "(...) those among us who remain all too ready to justify
>>> any  government action, whether right or wrong--will immediately point
>>> out that this is prewar thinking (...)." (ix-x)
>> 
>> Precisely. This is the first sentence in the paragraph. Have a think about
>> the demonstrative pronoun "this". What does it refer back to?
>> 
> 
> "This" goes back to the democratic socialist complaint in the preceding
> paragraph that "The masses were only there to be used for their idealism,
> their class resentments, their willingness to work cheap and to be sold out,
> again and again."

It goes back to the whole paragraph, but more specifically it goes back to
Orwell's criticism of the "'official Left', meaning basically the British
Labour Party, most of which he had come, well before the Second World War,
to regard as potentially, if not already, fascist." (ix)

The second sentence in the "fascistic disposition" paragraph explicitly
restates Orwell's attitude towards British Labour: "(...) well, if you want
to call that fascism (...)".

best