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Silver2195
Apr 4, 2012

FizFashizzle posted:

orwell hated ghandi which makes him ok in my book.

To say he hated him would be overstating it considerably. Orwell's evaluation of Gandhi was pretty nuanced.

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Polybius91
Jun 4, 2012

Cobrastan is not a real country.

TomViolence posted:

Have you considered that his rantings and musings might have been hyperbolic or perhaps made in jest? I mean he also goes on about fruit juice drinkers ruining socialism and I'm not sure if I'd take that literally.
Yeah, admittedly it's very possible they were. I guess I might just be jaded, because I've been on the internet long enough to see way too many people voice completely outlandish views without a hint of irony or even awareness that what they're saying might not be well-received.

quote:

EDIT: As much as Orwell laments the onward march of technology, it seems more like wistful reminiscence of commonplace things that were lost or set aside along the way. Particularly with regards to food, it would seem, and who can really blame him for that in an era when tinned and packaged foods were by all accounts pretty terrible. Industrialised society was and still is dehumanising in many respects, much more so in his day. More anecdotally, I live in a rural setting most of the time and it's quite discomfiting to visit an urban area and not see a scrap of green, sometimes for miles. Modernity is pretty jarring, even now.
I agree this is a legitimate problem. I would like it if cities incorporated more community gardens and parks.

FizFashizzle
Mar 30, 2005







Silver2195 posted:

To say he hated him would be overstating it considerably. Orwell's evaluation of Gandhi was pretty nuanced.

yeah I'm being facetious.

It's just interesting to ready any western writer who isn't effusive in his praise of gandhi.

Does he count as western in that regard since he was born in and heavily influenced by India?

Captain_Maclaine
Sep 30, 2001

Every moment I'm alive, I pray for death!

Silver2195 posted:

I've never been clear if by "fruit juice drinkers" Orwell meant teetotalers, people who overzealously proselytize about the health benefits of fruit juice, or people on fad diets where you eat and drink nothing but fruit juice.

I'm pretty sure he uses it as a broad label for people who promote crank diet schemes as a form of social reform, as there were any number of such weirdos during the late 19th and early 20th century who, for lack of anywhere else to place them, often ended up at least vaguely associated with left-wing causes.

woke wedding drone
Jun 1, 2003

by exmarx
Fun Shoe

Captain_Maclaine posted:

I'm pretty sure he uses it as a broad label for people who promote crank diet schemes as a form of social reform, as there were any number of such weirdos during the late 19th and early 20th century who, for lack of anywhere else to place them, often ended up at least vaguely associated with left-wing causes.

If anything his criticism has gotten more meaningful now that there are all these people who conflate buying a bamboo cutting board at Whole Foods with being progressive.

Stinky_Pete
Aug 16, 2015

Stinkier than your average bear
Lipstick Apathy
I was thinking that, back then, what we today think of as the benefits of technology would be called the power of "technique," as Russel Brand used it, whereas the machine refers not only to gizmos and motors, but to elements of capital to which the human laborer becomes merely an appendage.

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Rygar201
Jan 26, 2011
I AM A TERRIBLE PIECE OF SHIT.

Please Condescend to me like this again.

Oh yeah condescend to me ALL DAY condescend daddy.


SedanChair posted:

If anything his criticism has gotten more meaningful now that there are all these people who conflate buying a bamboo cutting board at Whole Foods with being progressive.

Those lazy loving transit workers' strike is keeping us from buying our organic produce!

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