I don’t think anyone since Shakespeare has contributed quite as many sayings and allusions to the English language as Orwell. And the most remarkable thing is that most of them come from only two relatively short books. Orwell was not a prolific writer and he died at a much earlier age than most of us would have wanted him to.
The wide waters of the Rhine separated the rich and peaceful provinces of Gaul from the violent barbarians of Germany. But it was no barrier. The warlike tribes were only prevented from helping themselves to the property of the empire’s inhabitants by the Roman army. The frontier was tough to defend and during the reign of Constantius had become very porous indeed.
The biggest problem with studying history is remembering that the people taking part in it didn’t know what was going to happen next. And there is another problem as well – they often didn’t know accurately what had happened before either. People’s motivations are often therefore hard to fathom. And the existence of conspiracy theories makes it even harder. It is in the nature of conspiracy theories that they tend to be very specific to particular times and are often completely forgotten about later. Take for example the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
I have become a bit embarrassed by the amount of interest my post about the trial of Galileo has generated. It was a very quick and not particularly thought out piece that I just knocked out in half an hour or so in response to a Pious Fabrication’s video. But it has been the most read post on my blog all week. Comments made on it were rather better written and much more informed than my actual post. That was humbling. But it has got me thinking about why the story of Galileo continues to resonate, especially given that the event itself was a bit confused to say the least. I think it’s because it has gone beyond an historical event and has turned into a parable.
Have you ever had two tabs open on your browser and found an unexpected connection between the pages? Here’s a thing. Is there something relating these two? In one there is a story about conservative Anglicans in London who have come up with a great wheeze. They have set up an organisation called the Southwark Good Stewards Company. This is a way of making sure their cash doesn’t fund congregations that support liberal things like toleration of homosexuals.
Soviet communism was a failure. In particular, it failed by the most basic of measures. You wouldn’t want to live there. By the time it ended just about everyone was fed up of it and it has subsequently had few mourners. Certainly nobody is likely to get very far trying to bring it back. But I think that even though it basically didn’t achieve what it set out to do – which was improve the standard of living of the average worker – the story of the USSR isn’t quite as bleak as most people think of it.
This huge book was also a huge success when it came out. There was a time when it was a common sight on buses and trains, and every bookshop in Britain had it in stock. In the seventies and eighties it seemed perfectly obvious that everyone was interested in the working class so a long and detailed history of it was a very logical proposition.
I always enjoy the stuff Dave Withun puts up on his blog Pious Fabrications and particularly the almost daily videos he puts on Youtube. They are well put together and thought provoking, and it’s good to hear a point of view a long way from my own. I’m generally happy just to read or listen and sometimes make the odd comment, but I really can’t let his video on the Trial of Galileo past without question.
