David Lowenthal transposes present society onto that in the novel,
1984, and illustrates "how the quest for a perfect society led
instead to the worst--in the course of revolting against which the
true ends of life are established." It is more than suspicion: the
year 2021 is 1984. What many understand by instinct, Lowenthal here
articulates in clear terms using the political prophesy of this no
longer futuristic literature. To be one without truthful unity?
This is the picture of human brotherhood ushering in the only thing
worse than inequality--enslavement. There is no positive political
message in 1984, argues Lowenthal, but there is positive moral
message that is nearly always overlooked by commentators. "Through
the movement of the novel, Orwell tries to impress on the passions,
hearts and minds of his readers the most valuable lessons
concerning the right and wrong way to live. With the decline of
Christianity's influence in forming the moral sense of the West and
the concomitant increase in power hunger, wielding instruments born
of modern enlightenment, what mankind most needed was moral
guidance, conveyed not abstractly, through philosophy, but in such
a way as to grip the whole soul." But can Orwell be trusted as a
guide to the goodness in human nature? Lowenthal says he can be,
and more. He gives us a sketch of the intellectual process that
compels Orwell to ultimately outgrow Marxism, his detection and
rejection of totalitarian regimes (above all in Communism), and in
what way the principles of liberalism of his day were given warning
labels by a writer who was not a formally educated political
philosopher. Laced with relativism, any current of thought that
does not acknowledge the proper ends of man will be effaced by the
next master of the masses. Lowenthal echoes Orwell when he says,
"we have abandoned inculcating good citizenship, higher ideals and
a sense of personal worth in the schools, encouraging instead an
aimless low-level conformist 'individuality' just waiting to be
harnessed together and directed. Given these conditions, can we be
sure we have left the conditions to the horrors of 1984 far behind
as mere fiction?" Orwell and Lowenthal are unlikely
co-collaborators, unless one perceives how much alike in their
exhortations to fellow man they are. The steady tenor of their hard
warning is made possible by a hope-soaked confidence that, in utter
sobriety, is repulsed by anything that threatens human freedom and
dignity. This book is required reading for anyone who believes in
the return of socialism. Indeed, any recent university graduate
should be debriefed by Lowenthal before entering the real world.
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