Amos,

I've read many books and articles by Orwell and I never fail to be fascinated both by language and thought. This man changed quite a bit through the experience of WWII. He is, admirably and with good arguments, a socialist in, for instance, 'Road to Wigan pier' before the war. During the war he started to realise that compared to the Barbarian alternative there was a lot worth to defend in that far from perfect prewar capitalist-democratic Britain. I've got a lot both of prewar and postwar Orwell in me and am torn between the two positions.

Sometimes I envy those who never have a doubt who is right and who's wrong, mostly I don't. I sometimes wish the discussions in Mudcat had more contributions from people with more open doubts. But that could be a theme for another thread.

Wolfgang