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Premiere: Jordan Peterson doesn't understand George Orwell

🕑 Added 2021-04-23 17:51:26 +0000 UTC

Comments

Tom Nicholas

Haha, too busy replying to every email he's sent presumably!

Tom Nicholas

I think it's a complicated one. The list was produced for the British security services (the Information Research Department). As such, it is often brought up as "Orwell's MI6 list" which is slightly overstating it—it was a list of people Orwell thought they shouldn't employ as propagandists rather than a list of people Orwell thought they should be surveilling (it's also worth taking into account that it was given to a personal friend who happened to work at the IRD rather than being a result of an discussion with an official). On the other hand, I've seen these factors used to underplay the list in ways that I think are hard to agree with—whatever the potential uses of the list, jotting down names for the security services is pretty troubling. At the end of the day, I see it as another example of Orwell's changeability and often outright hypocrisy. To point to another example, Orwell was initially defiantly against the UK going to war and thought that the British left should be ready to resist participation. Almost as soon as war was declared, however, he changed his tune and became desperate to contribute to the war effort.

Tina Callaghan

I watched a video lately where the host asked Noam Chomsky what he thought of Peterson and he said he didn't pay any attention to him. Proper burn!

MR CP OBRIEN

As a big fan of Orwell's work (apart from Aspidistra which I found tedious) and a person of the Left why do you think he compromised at the end of his life? I'm referring to his communist list.