George Orwell and the Betrayal of Dissent

[Dave Monroe]

Lucas, Scott.  George Orwell and the Betrayal of
   Dissent.  London and New York: Verso, 2003.

George Orwell is venerated by many as England’s
foremost political writer, a voice of honesty and
decency, a defender of intellectual freedom, and the
honourable embodiment of the "Left". In this
controversial new book, Scott Lucas argues that this
portrayal is actually a symptom of a threat to free
discussion. Orwell is both the origin and the icon of
an intellectual and political network which,
proclaiming itself the protector of freedom, tries to
limit and even quash dissent.

This effort has been redoubled after 9/11. Lucas
contends that public intellectuals such as Christopher
Hitchens, Salman Rushdie, Francis Fukuyama, and Joe
Klein, in the name of Orwellian honesty and decency,
have tried to rule out any dissent over aspects of the
War on terrorism, including the liberation of
Afghanistan, and to obscure any debate over the causes
of that terrorism. Far from enlightening us with
Orwell, these authors have bound us with him.

"Orwell's writing cannot be separated from the idelogy
of his environment and time. However valiantly his
admirers might try to portray a writer who was in
principled opposition to the faults of his own country
as well as those of others, Orwell's beliefs
ultimately led him to defend the political system that
he was supposedly criticizing."

http://www.versobooks.com/books/klm/l-titles/lucas_s_orwell.shtml

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