George Orwell on the 1% and 99%

[muriel_volestrangler]

From his 3rd June, 1940 diary (background: Germany had invaded the Low Countries and France 3 weeks before, and for a week, Britain had been evacuating troops from the continent by sea at Dunkirk):

From a letter from Lady Oxford to the Daily Telegraph, on the subject of war economies:

“Since most London houses are deserted there is little entertaining…in any case, most people have to part with their cooks and live in hotels.”

Apparently, nothing will ever teach these people that the other 99% of the population exist.

http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/3-6-40/

Via Lawyers, Guns and Money

[NeverEnuff]

1. One percent

It will continue to be about them only if we let it be.

[malaise]

2. They will never learn

because they do not give a flying fugg about others

[HopeHoops]

3. "All animals are equal. Some are just more equal."

[Remmah2]

4. Another George Orwell quote.

"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
- George Orwell

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Though the full context of that is Orwell supporting the civil defence force

during WW2:

Even as it stands the Home Guard could only exist in a country where men feel themselves free. The totalitarian states can do great things, but there is one thing they cannot do, they cannot give the factory worker a rifle and tell him to take it home and keep it in his bedroom. That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.

http://www.orwelltoday.com/readerriflequote.shtml

so it's not necessarily a call for everyone to be able to keep rifles in peacetime.

[Remmah2]

6. Without talking to Orwell directly we'll never know.

Scholarly second guessing is just, second guessing.