Conversation

Notices

1. Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Friday, 29-Mar-2019 02:45:43 EDT Strypey

   As the nearest existing equivalent I have chosen the word ‘nationalism’, but it will be seen in a moment that I am not using it in quite the ordinary sense, if only because the emotion I am speaking about does not always attach itself to what is called a nation — that is, a single race or a geographical area. It can attach itself to a church or a class, or it may work in a merely negative sense, against something or other ..."
   George Orwell, 'Notes on Nationalism'
   http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat

   1. Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Friday, 29-Mar-2019 02:46:56 EDT Strypey

      in reply to

      "Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side."
      - George Orwell, 'Notes on Nationalism'
      http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat

      1. Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Friday, 29-Mar-2019 04:31:57 EDT Strypey

         in reply to

         "Probably the truth is discoverable, but the facts will be so dishonestly set forth in almost any newspaper that the ordinary reader can be forgiven either for swallowing lies or failing to form an opinion. The general uncertainty as to what is really happening makes it easier to cling to lunatic beliefs. Since nothing is ever quite proved or disproved, the most unmistakable fact can be impudently denied."
         - George Orwell, 'Notes on Nationalism'
         http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat

         1. Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Friday, 29-Mar-2019 04:35:18 EDT Strypey

            in reply to

            #GeorgeOrwell wrote these 'Notes on Nationalism' in 1945. Almost 100 years later, it's mind-boggling how much has changed, yet how much has stayed the same.