Global Orwell – Looking at why Orwell matters today

The literary exploration of "Why Orwell Matters" by Christopher Hitchens provides a highly authoritative account of the principles that guided George Orwell in his writings. Without doubt, Orwell is one of the most discussed political authors of the 20th century, and for good reason. Hitchens has stepped beyond the confines of academic literary criticism by uncovering how Orwell's lines of thought extend to today's political world. Rather than to simply add to the body of work about Orwell, "Why Orwell Matters" offers a fair assessment of the historic writer as well an intellectual tool of genuine relevance for political analysis and action today. Although Hitchens occasionally leans toward over-sophistication in his own style, his arguments remain clear enough to drive home the perhaps most essential point: the intellectual honesty and integrity of Orwell. For me, this is nothing less than the departure point for appreciating Orwell as being of critical importance when selecting a capable literary, or rather a journalistic methodology for understanding contemporary global politics.

Hitchens superbly demonstrates how a broad reading of Orwell's' work can provide the bedrock of journalistic skills for today's progressive, non-conformist writers. The fusion of depth and quality, accompanied by personal and professional integrity is what eludes most of contemporary mainstream political reporting. In the imperial battlefields of Iraq such failing is more evident than anywhere else, as "embedded" reporters, like prostitutes, tag along with their bed-masters through rubble, destruction and death, never asking why or what for.

Although objectivity is an ideal abstraction, good political writing always attempts to approximate the ideal. In his essays and journalism Orwell does precisely that, by keeping the ideal of democracy in clear site. Orwell never caves in, even

"...in an epoch of extreme yet cynically fluctuating factional loyalism, he managed both to be a consistent and adamant foe of both Hitler and Stalin..." (p.210)

In the struggle to dominate the political sphere language remains a powerful tool. In a globalized world, heavily shaken by security fears, language of the public discourse has been dramatically subverted as a partner of truth. Sounds and images occupy the foreground of political communication while language fragments serve to reinforce carefully crafted and technically produced interest-laden messages. In 1945 Orwell wrote:

"Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind" (p.71)

The messages from faraway and nameless semi-desserts that reach us in the evening news, during the intermissions of the countless reality shows we are fed, are construed by a propaganda machinery closely adapted to the needs of an invading army from the "land of the free". Those other violent images, spread in the name of an imagined divinity and broadcast to a target audience of marginalized and disempowered masses, tend to generate a satisfying yet vague and fleeting sense of power for those in want of an escape from life in a dead-end alley. But it hardly matters which of these messages are consumed: both kinds dehumanise the senders as well as the audience. Challenging such messages becomes a central task for all upright democrats. Political writing in the tradition of Orwell can serve as today's flag-bearer for freedom of thought for an informed democratic citizenry. It is easy to agree with Hitchens that what matters is "how you think", as exemplified by Orwell in his work. In the world of omnipresent globalization and associated multitudes of political struggles, there is no doubt that George Orwell matters today, as much or more than ever.

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