WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.540 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today we've pulled 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:05.660 together, well, an enormous library of biographies, 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:09.199 personal notes, essays, and even political manifestos. 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:11.939 All to tackle a pretty monumental task. Exactly. 00:00:12.339 --> 00:00:15.240 We are setting out to examine one of the 20th 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:19.070 century's greatest acts of, um... Of radical 00:00:19.070 --> 00:00:21.489 self -invention. We're not just talking about 00:00:21.489 --> 00:00:24.129 the literary giant George Orwell. No. We are 00:00:24.129 --> 00:00:26.829 investigating the methodical destruction and 00:00:26.829 --> 00:00:29.309 then the complete recreation of the man who was 00:00:29.309 --> 00:00:31.570 born Eric Arthur Blair. That's it, precisely. 00:00:31.890 --> 00:00:34.189 The sources you've gathered, they just show a 00:00:34.189 --> 00:00:36.770 life defined by this extraordinary, almost unbelievable 00:00:36.770 --> 00:00:39.530 contradiction. Right. I mean, how does a privileged 00:00:39.530 --> 00:00:42.090 Etonian, someone educated among the sons of the 00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:44.969 absolute elite, intentionally shed his entire 00:00:44.969 --> 00:00:47.630 identity to become a chronicler of tramps and 00:00:47.630 --> 00:00:49.689 gold? coal miners. And not just that. How does 00:00:49.689 --> 00:00:52.130 an officer of the Indian Imperial Police become 00:00:52.130 --> 00:00:55.530 the world's most ferocious and prophetic enemy 00:00:55.530 --> 00:00:57.649 of totalitarianism? It doesn't seem possible. 00:00:57.869 --> 00:01:01.329 Our mission today is to follow that jagged, really 00:01:01.329 --> 00:01:04.409 uncomfortable line of transformation. We need 00:01:04.409 --> 00:01:07.329 to analyze how these pivotal experiences, his 00:01:07.329 --> 00:01:10.049 controversial start in the colonies, his intentional 00:01:10.049 --> 00:01:13.090 embrace of, you know, genuine poverty. And of 00:01:13.090 --> 00:01:15.069 course, the trauma of the Spanish Civil War. 00:01:15.170 --> 00:01:18.689 Yes. How all of that systematically forced Eric 00:01:18.689 --> 00:01:21.569 Blair to forge this new identity, to become George 00:01:21.569 --> 00:01:24.230 Orwell. We need to understand not just the events, 00:01:24.250 --> 00:01:27.260 but the political and I guess. The psychological 00:01:27.260 --> 00:01:30.000 mechanisms that produced his unique, crystal 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.500 clear voice. And we have to because that voice 00:01:32.500 --> 00:01:35.159 is still ringing so loudly today. I mean, if 00:01:35.159 --> 00:01:36.780 you just look at his influence on our language, 00:01:36.859 --> 00:01:39.420 it's absolutely staggering. Oh, completely. Orwellian, 00:01:39.459 --> 00:01:41.680 Big Brother, Newspeak, Doublethink, Thoughtcrime. 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:44.120 These are not dusty historical terms. They are 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:46.739 deeply embedded in our everyday political language. 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:49.000 They really are. They're evidence of a man who 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:51.599 didn't just critique the mid -20th century. He 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:54.620 gave us the actual language to critique the 21st. 00:01:54.939 --> 00:01:57.239 Okay, let's unpack this transformation starting 00:01:57.239 --> 00:01:59.560 right at the very beginning with what you could 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:01.980 call the original sin, that essential contradiction. 00:02:02.750 --> 00:02:06.250 The duality of Eric Arthur Blair. So Eric Arthur 00:02:06.250 --> 00:02:09.569 Blair was born in 1903. And the place he was 00:02:09.569 --> 00:02:12.490 born immediately signals this contradiction for 00:02:12.490 --> 00:02:15.830 a man who would become champion of, you know, 00:02:15.849 --> 00:02:18.370 English democratic socialism. Right. Modahari 00:02:18.370 --> 00:02:20.449 in the Bengal presidency of British India. He 00:02:20.449 --> 00:02:22.050 was born right into the heart of the empire. 00:02:22.189 --> 00:02:24.949 He would later dedicate his entire life to dismantling. 00:02:24.969 --> 00:02:27.969 And that colonial background, it instantly places 00:02:27.969 --> 00:02:31.270 him in this, this really uncomfortable social 00:02:31.270 --> 00:02:34.000 bracket. The description of his family as being 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.639 lower upper middle class. Which is such a brilliant, 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:39.080 very English phrase. It's perfect, isn't it? 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:41.379 It's a crucial detail. It means they had the 00:02:41.379 --> 00:02:43.639 veneer of respectability. You know, public school 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:45.419 education, the professional connections. But 00:02:45.419 --> 00:02:47.699 then not the money. But they lacked the genuine 00:02:47.699 --> 00:02:50.039 wealth to sustain it. They were perpetually insecure, 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:52.500 always anxious about just maintaining appearances. 00:02:53.770 --> 00:02:56.789 economic tension it just creates the perfect 00:02:56.789 --> 00:02:59.030 breeding ground for his later class resentment 00:02:59.030 --> 00:03:01.349 doesn't it that feeling of being just slightly 00:03:01.349 --> 00:03:03.629 on the outside always looking in at the true 00:03:03.629 --> 00:03:06.830 elite Oh, absolutely. The biographers point out 00:03:06.830 --> 00:03:08.930 this was a source of profound shame for young 00:03:08.930 --> 00:03:12.530 Eric. His father, Richard Walmsley Blair, was 00:03:12.530 --> 00:03:15.210 a sub -deputy opium agent in the Indian Civil 00:03:15.210 --> 00:03:17.949 Service. We need to pause on that title. We really 00:03:17.949 --> 00:03:20.210 do. He wasn't just some general civil servant. 00:03:20.250 --> 00:03:22.849 He was overseeing the production and storage 00:03:22.849 --> 00:03:26.919 of opium. Opium, just in for sale to China. So 00:03:26.919 --> 00:03:29.039 the family's income, their respectable middle 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:31.800 class life, was fundamentally underpinned by 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:35.259 a, well, a morally dubious imperial trade that 00:03:35.259 --> 00:03:37.080 had created massive addiction and international 00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:40.360 conflict. That is a colossal ethical weight on 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:42.259 the family's history, whether he really acknowledged 00:03:42.259 --> 00:03:44.710 it at first or not. And the family roots, they 00:03:44.710 --> 00:03:46.949 go even further back into that brutal history 00:03:46.949 --> 00:03:50.030 of empire and inequality. They do. They connect 00:03:50.030 --> 00:03:52.430 him directly to the aristocratic foundation of 00:03:52.430 --> 00:03:54.870 the whole system. His great -great -grandfather, 00:03:54.949 --> 00:03:58.030 Charles Blair, was a wealthy, slave -owning country 00:03:58.030 --> 00:04:00.509 gentleman in Jamaica. Wow. He had plantations, 00:04:00.669 --> 00:04:03.449 inherited property, all of it tied to that system. 00:04:03.710 --> 00:04:06.210 And through marriage, that ancestor connected 00:04:06.210 --> 00:04:09.150 the Blairs to the landed aristocracy. He married 00:04:09.150 --> 00:04:11.830 Lady Mary Fane, the daughter of the 8th Earl 00:04:11.830 --> 00:04:15.189 of Westmoreland. So even while Eric Blair is 00:04:15.189 --> 00:04:18.290 growing up with pretty limited means, he's inheriting 00:04:18.290 --> 00:04:21.230 this extensive history tied to the gentry and 00:04:21.230 --> 00:04:23.189 the brutal mechanics of colonial exploitation. 00:04:23.310 --> 00:04:25.769 He came from the people who ran the system, even 00:04:25.769 --> 00:04:28.069 if his own family wasn't really benefiting from 00:04:28.069 --> 00:04:30.750 it at that moment. This duality, the shame of 00:04:30.750 --> 00:04:33.170 being the poor relation combined with the guilt 00:04:33.170 --> 00:04:35.730 of his family's colonial heritage, it must have 00:04:35.730 --> 00:04:38.589 made his early education just torturous. It really 00:04:38.589 --> 00:04:41.579 was. His mother pushed him incredibly hard for 00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:43.660 a public school education, which they could only 00:04:43.660 --> 00:04:45.879 get by landing him a scholarship to St. Cyprian 00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:48.420 School in 1911. And he was there for five years 00:04:48.420 --> 00:04:51.100 and hated it. The sources confirm he hated it 00:04:51.100 --> 00:04:53.160 with a rare intensity. Why so much hate? Was 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:55.899 it just the school itself or was it him recognizing 00:04:55.899 --> 00:04:58.759 his sort of inferior social status among his 00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:01.819 peers? It was overwhelmingly the latter. His 00:05:01.819 --> 00:05:03.800 scholarship meant he was always aware that he 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:06.560 was on reduced fees, that he came from a less 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:09.209 affluent home than the boys around him. He felt 00:05:09.209 --> 00:05:12.550 the cold sting of social snobbery really keenly. 00:05:12.810 --> 00:05:15.769 He later detailed all this misery in his powerful, 00:05:15.949 --> 00:05:19.529 posthumously published essay, Such, Such Were 00:05:19.529 --> 00:05:22.209 the Joys. But despite that discomfort, he did 00:05:22.209 --> 00:05:24.389 well enough academically to win more scholarships, 00:05:24.689 --> 00:05:27.829 first to Wellington and then to Eaton as a King's 00:05:27.829 --> 00:05:30.649 Scholar in 1917. And it's during this time we 00:05:30.649 --> 00:05:34.029 see the first little flicker of the future nonconformist, 00:05:34.129 --> 00:05:37.339 you know, the man who is determined to be. noticed, 00:05:37.379 --> 00:05:39.600 even if it meant being awkward. You're talking 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:41.879 about the headstand story. That adolescent anecdote 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:43.899 is just perfect for understanding the future 00:05:43.899 --> 00:05:46.639 George Orwell. His childhood friend, Jacinta 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:49.439 Budikam, she recalled finding young Eric standing 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:51.779 on his head in a field. Right, and when she asked 00:05:51.779 --> 00:05:54.279 why, he gives that instantly memorable answer. 00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:56.660 You are noticed more if you stand on your head 00:05:56.660 --> 00:05:59.459 than if you are right way up. It's an early declaration 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:01.839 of intent, isn't it? If the system won't reward 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:04.040 me for conforming, I'll subvert conformity just 00:06:04.040 --> 00:06:06.740 to get some attention. So he goes to Eaton. And 00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:10.060 he's taught French by Aldous Huxley, of all people. 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:13.019 Incredible. But he neglects his studies. He seems 00:06:13.019 --> 00:06:15.300 to deliberately underperform, which prevents 00:06:15.300 --> 00:06:17.980 him from getting a university scholarship. Why 00:06:17.980 --> 00:06:20.339 do that? Was it rebellion or did he just not 00:06:20.339 --> 00:06:22.800 fit the mold? It seems to have been a combination 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:25.560 of intellectual rebellion and maybe just a bit 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:28.819 of financial resignation. He was brilliant, but 00:06:28.819 --> 00:06:31.220 he found the curriculum sterile. He had already 00:06:31.220 --> 00:06:33.560 decided against the traditional scholarly life. 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:35.939 So when he didn't secure the university funding, 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:38.500 the choice was basically made for him. It was. 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:40.839 His family couldn't pay for him to go to Oxford 00:06:40.839 --> 00:06:44.279 or Cambridge. So he went for the next most traditional 00:06:44.279 --> 00:06:47.560 path for a lower upper middle class boy with 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:50.019 a public school education, but no money. The 00:06:50.019 --> 00:06:54.459 empire. The empire. So in 1922, at just 19 years 00:06:54.459 --> 00:06:57.500 old, he joins the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, 00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:00.360 which was then a province of British India. This 00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:02.360 phase must have been the ultimate test of that 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:04.560 contradiction he was living. It was the crucible. 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:07.540 It absolutely was. He started as an assistant 00:07:07.540 --> 00:07:10.259 district superintendent, posted in major areas 00:07:10.259 --> 00:07:13.079 like Mandalay and Youngmia, where he was responsible 00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:16.459 for the security and order for over 200 ,000 00:07:16.459 --> 00:07:20.319 people. For a 19 -year -old. That level of responsibility 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:23.220 is staggering. He had genuine power over the 00:07:23.220 --> 00:07:25.600 lives of hundreds of thousands of people. And 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:27.839 that power immediately forced him to confront 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:30.360 the colonial machine from the inside. Yes, and 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:33.579 the experience was deeply corrosive for him. 00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:36.139 He wasn't just an observer, he was the physical 00:07:36.139 --> 00:07:38.959 embodiment of the oppressor. He recalled the 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:40.879 psychological torture of the role. I remember 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:43.860 the quote. He said he was stuck between my hatred 00:07:43.860 --> 00:07:46.279 of the empire I served and my rage against the 00:07:46.279 --> 00:07:48.399 evil -spirited little beasts who tried to make 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:51.759 my job impossible. Wow. So he hates the system 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:53.980 he's policing, but he also feels the hostility 00:07:53.980 --> 00:07:55.699 from the people he's supposed to be managing. 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:58.899 It's a complete no -win situation. And it bred 00:07:58.899 --> 00:08:01.920 enormous internal guilt and conflict. It's during 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:04.000 this time that he makes this fascinating attempt 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.839 to, well... To physically integrate himself with 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:10.740 the culture he was policing. That's right. Alongside 00:08:10.740 --> 00:08:12.720 adopting the pencil mustache that all the British 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.879 officers favored, he got these small, untidy, 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:18.899 blue, circular tattoos on his knuckles. And these 00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:21.959 weren't just decorative. No, not at all. They 00:08:21.959 --> 00:08:24.620 were associated with beliefs in rural Burma that 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:26.480 they could protect the wearer against bullets 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:30.160 and snake bites. This simple act is so symbolic. 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:33.200 Here's the imperial officer seeking magical protection 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:36.559 from the very people he is suppressing. It shows 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:39.440 this early yearning attempt to reject his own 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:41.700 class identity and embrace the local culture, 00:08:41.740 --> 00:08:43.919 even if it's just superstitious, a way of saying, 00:08:43.980 --> 00:08:46.279 I am not one of them, even while he's wearing 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:50.019 their uniform. Exactly. So by 1927, he's on leave 00:08:50.019 --> 00:08:52.399 in England, suffering from dengue fever, and 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:54.059 the internal conflict just reaches a breaking 00:08:54.059 --> 00:08:56.669 point. He reappraises his entire life and makes 00:08:56.669 --> 00:08:58.990 the single most important non -writing decision 00:08:58.990 --> 00:09:01.110 he ever made. He resigns from the Indian Imperial 00:09:01.110 --> 00:09:04.389 Police. He chose to abandon a stable, respectable, 00:09:04.629 --> 00:09:07.490 powerful career to pursue the utterly precarious 00:09:07.490 --> 00:09:10.490 life of a writer. And his very first act as a 00:09:10.490 --> 00:09:12.789 newly minted writer was to draw on this trauma 00:09:12.789 --> 00:09:15.710 for his major works. Burmese days and those incredible 00:09:15.710 --> 00:09:19.610 essays. The searing essays. A hanging and shooting 00:09:19.610 --> 00:09:22.720 an elephant. Which just... brutally dissect the 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:25.799 moral decay of imperialism. He knew he had to 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:28.000 cleanse himself of the name Eric Blair, the colonial 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:30.279 officer, to earn the right to speak honestly 00:09:30.279 --> 00:09:33.519 about power. And that necessity, that need for 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:35.799 a clean slate, brings us to the most deliberate 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:38.980 phase of his self -creation. So after resigning 00:09:38.980 --> 00:09:40.799 from the police, Blair doesn't just settle down 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:43.299 to write a novel. Instead, he embarks on what 00:09:43.299 --> 00:09:46.059 you can only really call an active, almost masochistic 00:09:46.059 --> 00:09:49.279 period of self -degradation. A deliberate immersion 00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:52.240 into the absolute lowest strata of society in 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:54.580 London and Paris. This wasn't just research for 00:09:54.580 --> 00:09:56.399 a book. It was a psychological purification. 00:09:56.720 --> 00:09:58.759 He was trying to wash off the guilt of Burma 00:09:58.759 --> 00:10:05.519 by intentionally subjecting himself And he was 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:08.299 very inspired by Jack London. Oh, heavily. Specifically, 00:10:08.379 --> 00:10:10.480 London's investigative journalism in The People 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:13.340 of the Abyss. Blair went native in his own city, 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:16.419 dressing in rags, sleeping rough, and even adopting 00:10:16.419 --> 00:10:19.139 the temporary pseudonym P .S. Burton during these 00:10:19.139 --> 00:10:21.460 intermittent sorties into the London East End. 00:10:21.740 --> 00:10:24.279 How deep did this immersion actually go? He wasn't 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:27.120 just observing. He was really experiencing the 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:29.840 systemic cruelty of poverty. He was fully exposed 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:32.559 to the elements, to the hunger, to the bureaucratic 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:35.480 indifference. This experience yielded his first 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:38.460 published essay in English, The Spike, which 00:10:38.460 --> 00:10:40.740 is this uncompromising look at sleeping in a... 00:10:40.750 --> 00:10:42.590 tramp workhouse. And of course, it formed the 00:10:42.590 --> 00:10:44.850 basis of his first book, Down and Out in Paris 00:10:44.850 --> 00:10:48.210 and London. Yes. The sources highlight that poverty 00:10:48.210 --> 00:10:51.250 in all its forms, it became his obsessive subject 00:10:51.250 --> 00:10:53.809 right up until he experienced the Spanish Civil 00:10:53.809 --> 00:10:57.620 War. He didn't just limit this baptism by fire 00:10:57.620 --> 00:11:00.399 to England, either. He moved to Paris in 1928. 00:11:00.779 --> 00:11:03.240 Right. Supported in part by his aunt, Vélie Lemusin. 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:05.980 He was trying to write fiction. But again, it's 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:07.799 the poverty and the journalism that define the 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:10.159 period. He lived in the working class, fifth 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:12.139 -or -only small publishing articles about unemployment 00:11:12.139 --> 00:11:14.879 and the grim realities of London beggars. But 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:17.840 the key experience in Paris, again, it involved 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:20.200 physical suffering. It did. You're talking about 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:23.279 his serious illness in 1929. Yeah. He fell gravely 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:25.860 ill. and was taken to the Hospital Kochen, a 00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:28.840 free teaching hospital. There, he was subjected 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:31.360 to public medical examinations in front of students 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:34.360 and witnessed the callous, dehumanizing treatment 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:36.940 of the poor. And that firsthand trauma was so 00:11:36.940 --> 00:11:39.940 intense that years later in 1946, he wrote the 00:11:39.940 --> 00:11:42.620 essay How the Poor Die. A brutal critique of 00:11:42.620 --> 00:11:44.559 hospital indifference that came directly from 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:47.740 this one experience. After he recovered and had 00:11:47.740 --> 00:11:50.360 all his money stolen, he took on the most menial 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:53.120 jobs dishwashing in a fashionable hotel on the 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:56.000 Rue de Rivoli, which provides that famous, vivid 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:58.960 material for down and out. So he returns to Southwell, 00:11:59.019 --> 00:12:02.000 back to his parents' house in late 1929, and 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.100 he's cycling between this respectable life as 00:12:04.100 --> 00:12:06.440 an aspiring author and his tramping expeditions. 00:12:06.440 --> 00:12:09.360 He keeps up this double life for years. He was 00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:11.759 straddling two worlds and trying desperately 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:14.159 to collapse the distance between them. There's 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:16.899 that fascinating, almost pathological desire 00:12:16.899 --> 00:12:19.580 to experience the absolute worst of it. He even 00:12:19.580 --> 00:12:21.620 tried to get arrested. Deliberately tried to 00:12:21.620 --> 00:12:23.799 get arrested just to experience Christmas in 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:26.809 prison. He got drunk and disorderly, but the 00:12:26.809 --> 00:12:28.870 authorities just released him after two days. 00:12:29.330 --> 00:12:31.730 They decided his offense wasn't serious enough 00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:34.129 for jail time. He was desperately seeking the 00:12:34.129 --> 00:12:37.129 moral authority of a true outcast, and the state 00:12:37.129 --> 00:12:39.429 wouldn't even grant him that. Right. And this 00:12:39.429 --> 00:12:42.429 inherent tension, the privileged observer trying 00:12:42.429 --> 00:12:45.070 to become the thing he observes, is precisely 00:12:45.070 --> 00:12:48.240 why he needed the pen name. So avoiding family 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.679 embarrassment was the main driver for creating 00:12:50.679 --> 00:12:52.740 George Orwell. It was a practical necessity, 00:12:53.100 --> 00:12:56.340 yes. The sources say he needed to avoid embarrassing 00:12:56.340 --> 00:12:59.259 the respectable Blair family of Southwold over 00:12:59.259 --> 00:13:01.820 his identity as a tramp when Down and Out was 00:13:01.820 --> 00:13:04.940 about to be published in 1933. But it seems deeper 00:13:04.940 --> 00:13:07.519 than that. Oh, it was. Symbolically, it was the 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:10.019 final deliberate shedding of the imperial self. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:13.139 Eric Arthur Blair was the name tied to the opium 00:13:13.139 --> 00:13:16.539 agent and the Etonian past. George Orwell was 00:13:16.539 --> 00:13:18.519 born of the English landscape and the English 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:20.460 common man. Let's break down the name choice 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:22.860 itself. George is pretty straightforward. The 00:13:22.860 --> 00:13:25.419 patron saint of England, right. But Orwell. The 00:13:25.419 --> 00:13:28.159 significance there. The River Orwell flows through 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:31.399 Suffolk, an area he really loved. By choosing 00:13:31.399 --> 00:13:34.019 George Orwell, he gave himself what he called 00:13:34.019 --> 00:13:37.519 a good, round English name. He was patriotic. 00:13:37.850 --> 00:13:40.789 Earthy, anchored in common culture, unlike the 00:13:40.789 --> 00:13:43.509 slightly rarefied Anglo -Indian sound of Eric 00:13:43.509 --> 00:13:46.730 Blair. It was a complete rebranding, a name that, 00:13:46.750 --> 00:13:49.509 just by its sound, demands clear, honest English 00:13:49.509 --> 00:13:52.190 prose. Unmarred by foreign or class pretension. 00:13:52.480 --> 00:13:55.500 So Down and Out is published in January 1933. 00:13:56.039 --> 00:13:58.679 The transformation is publicly complete, but 00:13:58.679 --> 00:14:01.200 financially, he's still precarious. How did he 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:03.100 support himself while writing his early novels? 00:14:03.379 --> 00:14:04.840 He took up teaching, which was another deeply 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:07.580 awkward fit for him. He taught at two small schools, 00:14:07.860 --> 00:14:10.419 the Hawthorns and later Frase College. He was 00:14:10.419 --> 00:14:12.899 simultaneously writing Burmese Days and A Clergyman's 00:14:12.899 --> 00:14:15.480 Daughter. It offered just enough stability, but 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:17.200 it was fraught with difficulty. And once again, 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:19.360 his health intervenes and forces another career 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:21.759 change. He caught a severe chill during a motor... 00:14:32.670 --> 00:14:35.269 And it's important to remember that this fragile 00:14:35.269 --> 00:14:37.850 health was constantly pushing him to work harder, 00:14:37.929 --> 00:14:40.269 wasn't it? Like, he was racing against time. 00:14:40.409 --> 00:14:43.629 Absolutely. By 1935, he's working at a secondhand 00:14:43.629 --> 00:14:46.649 bookshop in Hampstead, Booklover's Corner. And 00:14:46.649 --> 00:14:49.370 this provided a rich backdrop for his fiction. 00:14:49.529 --> 00:14:52.250 Yes, that part -time job gave him free mornings 00:14:52.250 --> 00:14:54.570 to write and the vivid, claustrophobic atmosphere 00:14:54.570 --> 00:14:58.230 for his 1936 novel, Keep the Aspinister Flying. 00:14:58.649 --> 00:15:01.309 Crucially, the shop owners introduced him to 00:15:01.309 --> 00:15:04.669 this wider, radical intellectual circle, including 00:15:04.669 --> 00:15:06.909 members of the Independent Labor Party, the ILP. 00:15:07.309 --> 00:15:09.450 He was politically awakening, but still defining 00:15:09.450 --> 00:15:11.710 his terms. The ultimate political commitment, 00:15:11.809 --> 00:15:14.269 though, that came from a commission, Victor Galant 00:15:14.269 --> 00:15:16.870 asked him to investigate social conditions in 00:15:16.870 --> 00:15:19.029 the depressed north of England. And this led 00:15:19.029 --> 00:15:21.269 to his most famous piece of investigative journalism, 00:15:21.610 --> 00:15:25.070 The Road to Wigan Pier. This commission in 1936 00:15:25.070 --> 00:15:27.970 was the final stage of his transition from just 00:15:27.970 --> 00:15:30.690 a writer about poverty to a writer committed 00:15:30.690 --> 00:15:33.350 to systematic social change. It's fascinating 00:15:33.350 --> 00:15:35.490 that he sought advice from a working class author, 00:15:35.669 --> 00:15:38.700 Jack Hilton. Yes, and Hilton told him explicitly 00:15:38.700 --> 00:15:41.820 to go to Wigan rather than Rochdale, saying, 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:44.600 for there are the Colliers and their good stuff. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:48.440 Orwell took that advice to heart. He immersed 00:15:48.440 --> 00:15:50.639 himself completely, staying in these extremely 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:53.440 poor lodgings above a tripe shop and even going 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:55.840 down the Bryn Hall coal mine, which was a deeply 00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:57.840 traumatic, physically challenging experience 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:00.320 for him. And the resulting book, published in 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.360 1937, caused an immediate sensation because of 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:06.080 its structure. The structure is so key to understanding 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:08.659 his intellectual journey. It is. The first half 00:16:08.659 --> 00:16:12.360 is pure, uncompromising reportage on the horrifying 00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:15.399 conditions of factory and mine life he saw across 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:17.440 Lancashire and Yorkshire. But the second half 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:19.759 is the polemical breakthrough. A searing essay 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:22.559 about his own class background, his hatred of 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:24.899 the nasty little Latonian snob he used to be, 00:16:24.980 --> 00:16:27.700 and this passionate, often cranky argument for 00:16:27.700 --> 00:16:30.100 democratic socialism. Galantz, who's publishing 00:16:30.100 --> 00:16:32.240 it for the Left Book Club, was terrified of this 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:35.019 second half. He was deeply... He added a disculpatory 00:16:35.019 --> 00:16:37.620 preface because he was worried that Orwell's 00:16:37.620 --> 00:16:40.419 blunt criticism of the middle class intellectual 00:16:40.419 --> 00:16:43.120 left, who were the primary readers of the left 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:46.039 book club, would offend his audience. Orwell 00:16:46.039 --> 00:16:48.220 was already the outsider, wasn't he? Unwilling 00:16:48.220 --> 00:16:50.299 to conform even to the standards of his own political 00:16:50.299 --> 00:16:53.720 allies. Exactly. And the state noticed. It's 00:16:53.720 --> 00:16:56.440 a hugely important detail that his meticulous 00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:58.919 investigation into the working class and his 00:16:58.919 --> 00:17:01.460 increasingly socialist views led to him being 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:03.419 placed under surveillance by the special branch 00:17:03.419 --> 00:17:06.559 starting in 1936. The irony is just immense. 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:10.660 Before 1984 was even conceived, the man who would 00:17:10.660 --> 00:17:13.640 define the term Big Brother was already being 00:17:13.640 --> 00:17:16.220 watched by the British security apparatus. Simply 00:17:16.220 --> 00:17:18.279 for caring too much about the poor and expressing 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:20.779 inconvenient political truths. So if Burma gave 00:17:20.779 --> 00:17:23.519 Eric Blair the guilt of the empire, Then Spain 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:26.460 gave George Orwell the mission of his life. He 00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:29.539 married Eileen O'Shaughnessy in June 1936. And 00:17:29.539 --> 00:17:31.500 by the end of that year, he felt compelled to 00:17:31.500 --> 00:17:33.500 go and fight in the Spanish Civil War on the 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:36.000 Republican side against Franco's uprising. And 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.640 his decision about who to join was critical. 00:17:38.940 --> 00:17:41.440 He deliberately refused to commit to the Communist 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:43.619 Party's international brigades who were aligned 00:17:43.619 --> 00:17:46.140 with the Soviet Union until he had assessed the 00:17:46.140 --> 00:17:49.150 situation firsthand. Instead, he used his contacts 00:17:49.150 --> 00:17:51.609 within the Independent Labor Party, the ILP, 00:17:51.750 --> 00:17:55.029 to join the POUM militia. The Workers' Party 00:17:55.029 --> 00:17:58.890 of Marxist Unification in Barcelona. This choice, 00:17:59.049 --> 00:18:01.670 POUM over the International Brigades, was the 00:18:01.670 --> 00:18:03.869 ideological fault line that defined the rest 00:18:03.869 --> 00:18:05.799 of his career, wasn't it? We should probably 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:08.279 clarify for you what the POUM actually represented. 00:18:08.460 --> 00:18:11.799 Absolutely. The POUM was a smaller anti -Stalinist 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:14.759 communist group. It drew on Trotskyist and anarcho 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:17.420 -syndicalist traditions. They emphasized revolutionary 00:18:17.420 --> 00:18:20.039 purity and worker control. And the international 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:22.759 brigades. By contrast, they were controlled by 00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:25.299 the highly disciplined pro -Soviet Communist 00:18:25.299 --> 00:18:27.819 Party. When Orwell arrived, he found the Aragon 00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:30.220 Front, where POUM was stationed, was defined 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:32.920 by camaraderie and this surprising egalitarianism, 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:35.579 but also by extreme deprivation. The sources 00:18:35.579 --> 00:18:38.339 describe a shocking lack of supplies. Oh, it 00:18:38.339 --> 00:18:41.220 was a world away from the organized, propaganda 00:18:41.220 --> 00:18:45.000 -fueled vision of Revolutionary War. He was shocked 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:48.519 by the shortages of food, firewood, basic supplies, 00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:51.720 and crucially reliable munitions. He became a 00:18:51.720 --> 00:18:54.329 corporal pretty quickly. Yes, not because he 00:18:54.329 --> 00:18:56.130 was a natural soldier, but because his earlier 00:18:56.130 --> 00:18:59.529 police and cadet corps training gave him organizational 00:18:59.529 --> 00:19:02.670 skills that none of the other men had. Meanwhile, 00:19:02.910 --> 00:19:05.630 his wife, Aileen, she followed him, volunteering 00:19:05.630 --> 00:19:07.910 at the ILP office in Barcelona. And bringing 00:19:07.910 --> 00:19:10.569 him luxuries like English tea and chocolate, 00:19:10.910 --> 00:19:12.569 a little piece of England in the revolutionary 00:19:12.569 --> 00:19:15.849 chaos. Exactly. But the real shock, the political 00:19:15.849 --> 00:19:17.730 trauma that became the intellectual foundation 00:19:17.730 --> 00:19:20.710 for 1984, that came when he returned to Barcelona 00:19:20.710 --> 00:19:23.920 in 1937. The May Days. This was the May Days. 00:19:24.420 --> 00:19:26.380 Factional fighting erupted between the various 00:19:26.380 --> 00:19:28.900 Republican groups. The pro -Soviet Communist 00:19:28.900 --> 00:19:32.279 Party, seeking to consolidate its power. launched 00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:35.240 this devastating organized propaganda campaign 00:19:35.240 --> 00:19:38.079 against the POUM and the anarcho -syndicalists. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:39.920 And they didn't just disagree with them. No, 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:41.940 they launched a campaign of wholesale systematic 00:19:41.940 --> 00:19:45.519 lies and distortion, accusing the POUM of collaborating 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:48.740 with fascists. This firsthand experience of state 00:19:48.740 --> 00:19:51.359 -sanctioned lying, of witnessing history being 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:53.839 rewritten instantly by the very people who were 00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:56.619 supposed to be his allies, that was the turning 00:19:56.619 --> 00:19:59.839 point. It was his political watershed. He wasn't 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:02.619 portrayed by Franco's fascists. He was betrayed 00:20:02.619 --> 00:20:06.259 by the supposedly revolutionary left. This systematic 00:20:06.259 --> 00:20:09.019 distortion of truth and history, it cemented 00:20:09.019 --> 00:20:11.519 his commitment to democratic socialism and made 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:14.180 him the fierce, uncompromising, anti -Stalinist 00:20:14.180 --> 00:20:16.660 prophet he became. He later wrote about this 00:20:16.660 --> 00:20:18.799 period. He said he had seen wonderful things 00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:20.759 and at last really believed in socialism, which 00:20:20.759 --> 00:20:23.559 I never did before. It was the purity of the 00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:26.279 communal spirit he saw on the front line, coupled 00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:28.900 with the dirty, murderous politics in the back 00:20:28.900 --> 00:20:31.740 offices that gave him that clarity. That moment 00:20:31.740 --> 00:20:34.440 must have been terrifyingly disorienting. I mean, 00:20:34.440 --> 00:20:36.259 how did he react when he realized the people 00:20:36.259 --> 00:20:38.140 he was fighting alongside were suddenly accusing 00:20:38.140 --> 00:20:41.000 him of being a fascist collaborator? The biographers 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:44.259 note he reacted with this bitter, lucid sarcasm 00:20:44.259 --> 00:20:46.720 when a communist friend approached him after 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:49.160 the fighting, asking if he still planned to join 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:50.900 the international brigades. What did he say? 00:20:51.289 --> 00:20:54.930 Orwell expressed genuine shock, noting that, 00:20:54.950 --> 00:20:57.210 according to the communist press, he was already 00:20:57.210 --> 00:21:00.569 listed as a fascist agent. That ability to observe 00:21:00.569 --> 00:21:03.069 and instantly articulate the absurdity of the 00:21:03.069 --> 00:21:06.250 lie, that's classic Orwell. Unfortunately, his 00:21:06.250 --> 00:21:08.349 time on the front line was cut brutally short 00:21:08.349 --> 00:21:11.190 right after this trauma. He returned to the front, 00:21:11.369 --> 00:21:13.650 but because of his unusual height, he was six 00:21:13.650 --> 00:21:16.710 foot two. He was warned that he stood out significantly 00:21:16.710 --> 00:21:20.549 above the trench parapet. And in May 1937, he 00:21:20.549 --> 00:21:23.369 was shot. Shot in the throat by a sniper's bullet. 00:21:23.529 --> 00:21:25.990 That's an agonizing detail. How close was he 00:21:25.990 --> 00:21:28.329 to death? The sources confirm the bullet missed 00:21:28.329 --> 00:21:31.079 his main artery by the barest margin. The injury 00:21:31.079 --> 00:21:33.380 was severe and it permanently damaged his voice. 00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:36.339 He was treated in a hospital in Leida and was 00:21:36.339 --> 00:21:38.440 eventually declared medically unfit for service. 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:41.000 And in a strange, terrifying way, that injury 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:43.000 might have saved his life. It may well have. 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:45.019 Yeah. Because the political purge was already 00:21:45.019 --> 00:21:47.960 underway. Right. The PUM was outlawed. And its 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:50.900 members were being arrested. His commander, Georges 00:21:50.900 --> 00:21:54.579 Cobb, was jailed. Orwell and Aileen had to go 00:21:54.579 --> 00:21:57.319 into hiding, lying low in Barcelona under constant 00:21:57.319 --> 00:22:00.250 threat of arrest. A deposition was filed, charging 00:22:00.250 --> 00:22:03.410 them with rabid Trotskyism. Given his health, 00:22:03.589 --> 00:22:05.329 if he had been caught and imprisoned, he probably 00:22:05.329 --> 00:22:07.410 wouldn't have survived. No, they had to escape 00:22:07.410 --> 00:22:10.250 Spain by train. It was an act of sheer political 00:22:10.250 --> 00:22:13.190 desperation, fleeing the very system they had 00:22:13.190 --> 00:22:15.450 volunteered to save. That double escape from 00:22:15.450 --> 00:22:18.349 colonialism in Burma, and now from totalitarianism 00:22:18.349 --> 00:22:20.609 in Spain, that was the final political education. 00:22:20.910 --> 00:22:23.490 And the result was Homage to Catalonia, published 00:22:23.490 --> 00:22:26.630 in 1938. A commercially disastrous book at first. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:30.480 but intellectually vital. His publication confirmed 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:33.420 his transition from a writer about poverty to 00:22:33.420 --> 00:22:35.700 a writer about political integrity and the necessity 00:22:35.700 --> 00:22:38.220 of confronting lies. And it's chilling to know 00:22:38.220 --> 00:22:41.019 that later Soviet files confirmed that both Dorge 00:22:41.019 --> 00:22:43.460 and Aileen were being spied on in Barcelona in 00:22:43.460 --> 00:22:46.440 May 1937. The paranoia and distortion he wrote 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:48.920 about was absolutely real. Back in England, he 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:51.039 found his nuanced views on the Civil War were 00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:53.380 highly unpopular among the intellectual left, 00:22:53.460 --> 00:22:56.640 who were still broadly pro -Soviet. Yes. His 00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:58.680 publisher, Galantz, and even Kingsley Martin 00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:02.180 rejected several of his subsequent works. This 00:23:02.180 --> 00:23:05.539 intellectual ostracization just reinforced his 00:23:05.539 --> 00:23:08.539 identity as the necessary outsider, the independent 00:23:08.539 --> 00:23:11.180 voice. He eventually found a sympathetic publisher 00:23:11.180 --> 00:23:14.279 in Frederick Warburg of Secker and Warburg. A 00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:16.559 relationship that would prove vital for his later 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:19.519 masterpieces. But during this time, his health 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:22.259 declined severely. He spent time in Preston Hall 00:23:22.259 --> 00:23:25.019 Sanatorium. A generous friend secretly funded 00:23:25.019 --> 00:23:27.440 a trip for the Orwells to French Morocco to escape 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:29.700 the English winter, where he wrote the novel 00:23:29.700 --> 00:23:32.920 Coming Up for Air, published in 1939, the same 00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:35.200 year his father died. As World War II began, 00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:37.539 Orwell, who is still recovering and officially 00:23:37.539 --> 00:23:40.019 declared unfit for any kind of military service. 00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:41.940 Because of his throat injury and his lung issues. 00:23:42.119 --> 00:23:44.259 Right. He found this unique way to reconcile 00:23:44.259 --> 00:23:47.279 his socialism with patriotism. He embraced what 00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:50.339 he called revolutionary patriotism. Unlike many 00:23:50.339 --> 00:23:52.900 on the left, he passionately believed that England, 00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:56.019 its culture, its common decency, was worth defending 00:23:56.019 --> 00:23:58.380 against fascism, but that the defense had to 00:23:58.380 --> 00:24:00.839 be underpinned by a socialist revolution. So 00:24:00.839 --> 00:24:03.079 he joined the Home Guard. Yes, teaching street 00:24:03.079 --> 00:24:06.059 fighting and fortifications. He saw it as a revolutionary 00:24:06.059 --> 00:24:08.759 people's militia, not just a traditional defense 00:24:08.759 --> 00:24:11.619 force. And this political synthesis was beautifully 00:24:11.619 --> 00:24:14.880 articulated in his 1941 work, The Lion and the 00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:17.460 Unicorn. That work is so vital because it explains 00:24:17.460 --> 00:24:20.119 the unique path of democratic socialism he was 00:24:20.119 --> 00:24:22.640 advocating. It's an attempt to marry the core 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:25.599 values of English culture, fair play, love of 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:28.640 nature, a sense of humor, with a genuinely socialist 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:31.480 political framework. It was a call to arms for 00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:33.400 the English left, telling them to stop viewing 00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:36.099 patriotism as exclusively a right -wing concept. 00:24:36.420 --> 00:24:39.039 Exactly. This period also saw him working directly 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:40.920 for the establishment he so often criticized, 00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:44.700 the BBC's Eastern Service from 1941 to 1943. 00:24:45.220 --> 00:24:47.299 How did the fiercely independent Orwell cope 00:24:47.299 --> 00:24:49.940 with being a propagandist? It was a deeply conflicted 00:24:49.940 --> 00:24:52.910 role. His job was to supervise cultural broadcasts 00:24:52.910 --> 00:24:55.849 to India. To counter Nazi propaganda, he had 00:24:55.849 --> 00:24:58.329 Vinu Chitale as his secretary. It was a constant 00:24:58.329 --> 00:25:00.670 exercise in intellectual compromise. He felt 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:02.250 he was fighting the good fight against Hitler, 00:25:02.329 --> 00:25:04.549 but... But doing so under the banner of an empire 00:25:04.549 --> 00:25:08.650 he despised. He resigned in 1943 because he felt 00:25:08.650 --> 00:25:11.049 the work was fruitless. And reports confirmed 00:25:11.049 --> 00:25:14.650 his fears. Almost no Indians were actually listening. 00:25:14.849 --> 00:25:17.089 He needed to free up his time for what became 00:25:17.089 --> 00:25:19.640 his defining political statement. The masterpiece 00:25:19.640 --> 00:25:22.359 he began writing in 1943 following his mother's 00:25:22.359 --> 00:25:25.160 death was, of course, Animal Farm. This was the 00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:28.460 direct fictionalized attack on Stalinism, using 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:31.420 the allegory of animals taking over a farm to 00:25:31.420 --> 00:25:33.500 critique the degeneration of the Soviet Revolution 00:25:33.500 --> 00:25:36.799 into a totalitarian tyranny run by the pigs. 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:39.359 It was a political hand grenade aimed squarely 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:41.799 at what he saw as the greatest intellectual dishonesty 00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:44.440 of his time. Western intellectuals justifying 00:25:44.440 --> 00:25:46.900 Stalin's atrocities. And it was almost universally 00:25:46.900 --> 00:25:49.079 rejected when he finished. it. The rejection 00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:51.920 story is an absolute masterpiece of Orwellian 00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:54.559 irony. It perfectly demonstrates the intellectual 00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:56.819 cowardice and political blindness he was always 00:25:56.819 --> 00:25:58.920 writing about. Because the Soviet Union was a 00:25:58.920 --> 00:26:02.940 key WWII ally, his critique was considered unpatriotic. 00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:06.259 So Victor Galenz refused it. T .S. Eliot at Faber 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:08.759 and Faber rejected it, arguing that the critique 00:26:08.759 --> 00:26:11.200 was unsound because the pigs weren't presented 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:14.279 as being sufficiently good to run the farm. But 00:26:14.279 --> 00:26:17.119 the most shocking rejection involved actual state 00:26:17.119 --> 00:26:20.240 interference. Yes. Jonathan Cape initially agreed 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:22.279 to publish it, but then reversed his decision 00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:24.579 after a visit from a man named Peter Smollett 00:26:24.579 --> 00:26:26.900 from the Ministry of Information. And Smollett 00:26:26.900 --> 00:26:29.700 was later identified. Years after Orwell's death 00:26:29.700 --> 00:26:33.039 as a Soviet agent, a Soviet spy successfully 00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:35.240 blocked the publication of the most important 00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:38.059 anti -Soviet literary work of the age. It's the 00:26:38.059 --> 00:26:40.700 ultimate confirmation of the very mechanism of 00:26:40.700 --> 00:26:43.259 deceit he was fighting against. It confirmed 00:26:43.259 --> 00:26:46.440 his darkest suspicions about the extent of totalitarian 00:26:46.440 --> 00:26:48.880 influence within Western liberal institutions. 00:26:49.259 --> 00:26:52.680 It was only published in August 1945 by Secker 00:26:52.680 --> 00:26:55.859 and Warburg after the war had ended and the political 00:26:55.859 --> 00:26:58.839 necessity of praising Uncle Joe Stalin had evaporated. 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:02.380 And it was an instant worldwide success. It finally 00:27:02.380 --> 00:27:04.799 gave Orwell the financial stability and the cultural 00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:07.039 platform he had struggled for his entire life. 00:27:07.420 --> 00:27:10.500 It did. But amidst this sudden literary success, 00:27:10.859 --> 00:27:15.160 he suffered a profound personal tragedy. In 1944, 00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:18.819 he and Eileen adopted a son, Richard Horatio 00:27:18.819 --> 00:27:22.920 Blair. But in March 1945, Eileen died unexpectedly. 00:27:23.539 --> 00:27:26.579 It was a terrible, sudden loss. She died from 00:27:26.579 --> 00:27:29.059 an allergic reaction to the anesthetic during 00:27:29.059 --> 00:27:31.359 a hysterectomy while he was away as a war correspondent. 00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:35.019 Despite being a man who was often awkward and 00:27:35.019 --> 00:27:38.059 emotionally reserved, Orwell was absolutely determined 00:27:38.059 --> 00:27:41.099 not to give up Richard. He raised the boy largely 00:27:41.099 --> 00:27:43.519 as a single father. Insisting Richard accompanying 00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:45.759 him everywhere, treating him almost like a mini 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.680 adult. Right. But the shadow of his illness prevented 00:27:48.680 --> 00:27:51.140 him from being a completely physically affectionate 00:27:51.140 --> 00:27:53.579 father. That's a heartbreaking detail. His son 00:27:53.579 --> 00:27:55.519 Richard later discovered that Orwell was terrified 00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:58.059 of passing on his undiagnosed tuberculosis to 00:27:58.059 --> 00:28:00.299 him, and this fear caused him to avoid common 00:28:00.299 --> 00:28:03.000 physical closeness, no hugging or kissing. Even 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:04.799 his devotion was filtered through the constant 00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:07.119 danger of his own failing health. So, seeking 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:09.720 refuge and stability for his writing, he moved 00:28:09.720 --> 00:28:13.339 in 1946 to this fiercely remote location. Barnhill. 00:28:13.819 --> 00:28:16.619 A primitive, abandoned farmhouse on the island 00:28:16.619 --> 00:28:19.500 of Jura in the Inner Hebrides. And this remote, 00:28:19.619 --> 00:28:22.599 beautiful, but desperately difficult location 00:28:22.599 --> 00:28:25.200 became the birthplace of his great dystopian 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:29.589 novel. He began writing 1984 on Jura. But the 00:28:29.589 --> 00:28:32.789 isolation and the rugged lifestyle just compounded 00:28:32.789 --> 00:28:35.250 his already severe health problems. He nearly 00:28:35.250 --> 00:28:38.829 died in 1947 during a disastrous boating accident 00:28:38.829 --> 00:28:41.490 in the Gulf of Cory Reckon, which left him soaked 00:28:41.490 --> 00:28:43.690 and worsened his existing condition. And the 00:28:43.690 --> 00:28:46.109 tuberculosis diagnosis was confirmed soon after. 00:28:46.230 --> 00:28:48.509 He was hospitalized and received streptomycin 00:28:48.509 --> 00:28:50.670 treatment, which was a new cutting -edge drug 00:28:50.670 --> 00:28:53.009 at the time, imported with the help of his close 00:28:53.009 --> 00:28:55.819 friend, the editor David Astor. But the treatment 00:28:55.819 --> 00:28:58.660 had to be stopped. Tragically, yes. It was discontinued 00:28:58.660 --> 00:29:01.019 because he developed toxic epidermal necrolysis, 00:29:01.160 --> 00:29:04.380 a very rare and severe side effect. He struggled 00:29:04.380 --> 00:29:06.299 on, though, driven by the urgency of getting 00:29:06.299 --> 00:29:08.259 his message out. He finished the manuscript of 00:29:08.259 --> 00:29:11.539 1984 in December 1948, despite being critically 00:29:11.539 --> 00:29:14.960 weak. It was published in June 1949 to immediate 00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:17.960 and widespread critical acclaim. It instantly 00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:19.900 shaped the political consciousness of the Cold 00:29:19.900 --> 00:29:22.690 War. It was a race against the clock. His final 00:29:22.690 --> 00:29:25.089 months were spent in and out of hospitals, yet 00:29:25.089 --> 00:29:28.609 they included a controversial final act, a second 00:29:28.609 --> 00:29:32.210 marriage in 1949 to Sonia Brownell in his hospital 00:29:32.210 --> 00:29:35.170 room. This marriage remains deeply scrutinized 00:29:35.170 --> 00:29:37.829 by biographers. It does. Sonia Brownell was believed 00:29:37.829 --> 00:29:40.190 by some of his friends to be the model for Julia, 00:29:40.410 --> 00:29:42.849 the pragmatic, sexually liberated protagonist 00:29:42.849 --> 00:29:46.160 of 1984. The controversy stems from the timing. 00:29:46.380 --> 00:29:48.640 Some friends felt Sony was primarily attracted 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:51.500 to his new fang and financial success. It added 00:29:51.500 --> 00:29:54.440 this layer of ambiguity to a man who craved moral 00:29:54.440 --> 00:29:57.980 clarity. He died soon after, aged only 46, on 00:29:57.980 --> 00:30:01.720 January 21, 1950. from a pulmonary artery rupture 00:30:01.720 --> 00:30:04.359 related to his tuberculosis. And here is the 00:30:04.359 --> 00:30:07.460 final poignant contradiction in his life. Despite 00:30:07.460 --> 00:30:09.700 being a lifelong atheist and a fierce critic 00:30:09.700 --> 00:30:12.240 of the church, he requested an Anglican burial. 00:30:12.460 --> 00:30:14.680 His friend David Astor arranged for him to be 00:30:14.680 --> 00:30:17.039 interred at All Saints Church in Sutton Courtney, 00:30:17.180 --> 00:30:19.279 Oxfordshire. The champion of the dispossessed, 00:30:19.380 --> 00:30:21.559 the secular socialist who sought moral truth 00:30:21.559 --> 00:30:23.900 in humanism, was buried with Anglican rites, 00:30:23.960 --> 00:30:26.160 far away from the tramps and colliers of London. 00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:29.059 When we look back at Orwell's career today, we 00:30:29.059 --> 00:30:32.319 remember him for two novels, Animal Farm and 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:36.140 1984. But as we've discussed during his lifetime, 00:30:36.500 --> 00:30:40.279 he was equally, if not more, valued for his nonfiction. 00:30:40.440 --> 00:30:42.579 Oh, absolutely. His journalism and his essay 00:30:42.579 --> 00:30:44.799 writing. They were his weekly sermon on clarity 00:30:44.799 --> 00:30:47.799 and decency. That's a good way to put it. Down 00:30:47.799 --> 00:30:50.299 and out, Wigan Pier, an homage to Catalonia, 00:30:50.440 --> 00:30:53.759 established his moral authority. Literary critics 00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:55.799 still debate whether he was a great novelist, 00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:58.799 but they all agree he was the best English essayist 00:30:58.799 --> 00:31:01.680 since Hazlitt, perhaps since Dr. Johnson. He 00:31:01.680 --> 00:31:04.180 had that unmatched ability to weave personal 00:31:04.180 --> 00:31:07.480 anecdote with profound social commentary. He 00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:09.900 really did. Let's briefly revisit his intellectual 00:31:09.900 --> 00:31:13.829 ancestry. Who influenced this unique voice? Well, 00:31:13.910 --> 00:31:16.450 he had a deep appreciation for the great satirists 00:31:16.450 --> 00:31:19.329 and realists. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels 00:31:19.329 --> 00:31:21.549 was one of the six books he famously said he 00:31:21.549 --> 00:31:23.690 would save if all others were destroyed. He admired 00:31:23.690 --> 00:31:26.690 Dickens greatly. Yes, characterizing him as a 00:31:26.690 --> 00:31:29.509 19th century liberal whose outrage fueled social 00:31:29.509 --> 00:31:33.710 change. Though he did criticize Dickens for lacking 00:31:33.710 --> 00:31:37.049 a truly revolutionary program. We mentioned Jack 00:31:37.049 --> 00:31:39.069 London's influence on his investigative work. 00:31:39.390 --> 00:31:41.970 And politically, Arthur Cussler was very important 00:31:41.970 --> 00:31:44.529 to him. Especially Darkness at Noon. That book 00:31:44.529 --> 00:31:47.049 gave him crucial anti -Stalinist insight into 00:31:47.049 --> 00:31:49.250 the mechanics of totalitarian confession and 00:31:49.250 --> 00:31:51.970 show trials, which he felt Western intellectuals 00:31:51.970 --> 00:31:54.569 were far too eager to justify or just dismiss. 00:31:54.910 --> 00:31:57.430 This constant frustration with the dishonesty 00:31:57.430 --> 00:32:01.049 of his intellectual peers led to his most lasting 00:32:01.049 --> 00:32:03.930 and I think practical contribution, defining 00:32:03.930 --> 00:32:06.849 the power of language as a political tool. We 00:32:06.849 --> 00:32:10.430 have to talk about his seminal 1946 essay, Politics 00:32:10.430 --> 00:32:12.609 in the English Language. It's the cornerstone 00:32:12.609 --> 00:32:15.130 of his entire anti -totalitarian philosophy. 00:32:15.690 --> 00:32:18.670 It is. He argued that vague, sloppy, or euphemistic 00:32:18.670 --> 00:32:21.089 writing isn't just a sign of poor style. It's 00:32:21.089 --> 00:32:24.240 a direct tool of political manipulation. He believed 00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:27.059 clear thinking was impossible without clear language. 00:32:27.319 --> 00:32:29.519 If you can't describe political cruelty in concrete 00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:32.039 terms, it becomes easier to defend the indefensible. 00:32:32.299 --> 00:32:35.380 Exactly. To make murder sound like pacification 00:32:35.380 --> 00:32:39.299 or imprisonment sound like re -education. He 00:32:39.299 --> 00:32:41.839 provided a framework for writers seeking to resist 00:32:41.839 --> 00:32:44.940 this intellectual rot, his famous six rules. 00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:48.079 Let's not just list them, but explore the political 00:32:48.079 --> 00:32:50.660 consequence of actually following them. The rules 00:32:50.660 --> 00:32:52.299 are simple, yet they're radically political. 00:32:52.940 --> 00:32:55.680 The first, never use a long word where a short 00:32:55.680 --> 00:32:58.660 one will do, is a direct attack on academic pretension 00:32:58.660 --> 00:33:01.539 and jargon that seeks to obfuscate reality. Right. 00:33:01.619 --> 00:33:04.079 And the second, if it's possible to cut a word 00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:06.980 out, always cut it out. That demands ruthless 00:33:06.980 --> 00:33:09.339 conciseness, forcing the writer to strip away 00:33:09.339 --> 00:33:12.299 the padding that disguises bad ideas. The third, 00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:14.559 never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure 00:33:14.559 --> 00:33:16.380 of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 00:33:16.579 --> 00:33:19.079 This demands originality. It forces the writer 00:33:19.079 --> 00:33:21.380 to see the world anew, rather than relying on 00:33:21.380 --> 00:33:23.140 cliches that have been drained of all meaning. 00:33:23.380 --> 00:33:26.420 By demanding we avoid stale phrases, he forces 00:33:26.420 --> 00:33:29.380 us to confront reality directly. Exactly. The 00:33:29.380 --> 00:33:31.480 fourth, never use a foreign phrase, a scientific 00:33:31.480 --> 00:33:33.500 word, or a jargon word if you can think of an 00:33:33.500 --> 00:33:36.160 everyday English equivalent, continues his demand 00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:38.660 for clarity and accessibility. The fifth is an 00:33:38.660 --> 00:33:41.170 ethical check. Never use the passive voice where 00:33:41.170 --> 00:33:43.130 you can use the active. And the passive voice 00:33:43.130 --> 00:33:45.289 is the political tool of deflection, isn't it? 00:33:45.450 --> 00:33:48.390 Mistakes were made rather than I made mistakes. 00:33:48.630 --> 00:33:51.049 He demanded responsibility. And the final rule, 00:33:51.269 --> 00:33:54.890 his safety valve. Break any of these rules sooner 00:33:54.890 --> 00:33:59.190 than say anything outright barbarous. It emphasizes 00:33:59.190 --> 00:34:01.690 that the meaning and the truth always come first, 00:34:01.890 --> 00:34:05.890 even over strict style. It's a plea for unvarnished 00:34:05.890 --> 00:34:09.250 truth in the face of political expediency. And 00:34:09.250 --> 00:34:11.349 this precision allowed him to create an entire 00:34:11.349 --> 00:34:14.050 language of political critique that entered the 00:34:14.050 --> 00:34:17.730 lexicon instantly with 1984. The list of neologisms 00:34:17.730 --> 00:34:19.949 is the physical proof of his prophetic vision. 00:34:20.440 --> 00:34:22.480 We need to remember what each of these terms 00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:25.239 actually means. Newspeak isn't just simplified 00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:28.579 language. No, it's a language specifically engineered 00:34:28.579 --> 00:34:31.320 to make independent or rebellious thought literally 00:34:31.320 --> 00:34:33.639 impossible because the words needed to express 00:34:33.639 --> 00:34:36.119 those thoughts have been eliminated. Right, and 00:34:36.119 --> 00:34:38.639 doublethink is that terrifying mental state of 00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:40.440 holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously, 00:34:40.940 --> 00:34:43.699 or knowing a lie is a lie, yet believing it to 00:34:43.699 --> 00:34:45.900 be true because the party wills it. We use terms 00:34:45.900 --> 00:34:49.139 like thought police, room 101 and the memory 00:34:49.139 --> 00:34:51.900 hole all the time today. There are shortcuts 00:34:51.900 --> 00:34:55.679 to describing totalitarian control. They're powerful, 00:34:55.800 --> 00:34:58.719 immediate metaphors for surveillance, customized 00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:01.260 torture and the disappearance of inconvenient 00:35:01.260 --> 00:35:04.159 history. It's extraordinary that Orwell didn't 00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:06.940 just diagnose the problem. He gave us the diagnostic 00:35:06.940 --> 00:35:10.199 tools. And his influence extends beyond 1984. 00:35:11.119 --> 00:35:13.940 He even coined the defining term for the geopolitical 00:35:13.940 --> 00:35:16.119 tension that emerged right after World War II. 00:35:16.300 --> 00:35:18.280 The sources confirm he may have been the first 00:35:18.280 --> 00:35:21.099 person to use the term Cold War. Yes, in his 00:35:21.099 --> 00:35:24.340 1945 essay, You and the Atom Bomb. He used it 00:35:24.340 --> 00:35:26.840 to describe a permanent, terrifying state of 00:35:26.840 --> 00:35:29.320 tension between unconquerable states armed with 00:35:29.320 --> 00:35:31.920 atomic weapons, a world defined by ideological 00:35:31.920 --> 00:35:35.019 conflict and proxy battles, which precisely described 00:35:35.019 --> 00:35:38.130 the next 50 years of global history. Despite 00:35:38.130 --> 00:35:40.369 this public clarity and fierce moral vision, 00:35:40.590 --> 00:35:43.170 his personal character remains intensely contradictory, 00:35:43.530 --> 00:35:46.349 doesn't it? Fueling ongoing biographical debates. 00:35:46.690 --> 00:35:49.010 He was noted for being both deeply loyal and 00:35:49.010 --> 00:35:51.809 profoundly awkward. He maintained very close 00:35:51.809 --> 00:35:54.570 lifelong friendships, typically with people who 00:35:54.570 --> 00:35:57.710 shared his cultural background. Yet he was profoundly 00:35:57.710 --> 00:36:00.469 un -gregarious in public, especially with the 00:36:00.469 --> 00:36:02.389 people he was trying to champion. There's that 00:36:02.389 --> 00:36:04.789 anecdote from his brother -in -law's local pub. 00:36:04.969 --> 00:36:07.250 Right, where the landlord banned Orwell, saying, 00:36:07.369 --> 00:36:10.230 don't bring that bugger in here again. He was 00:36:10.230 --> 00:36:11.989 intellectually committed to the working class, 00:36:12.090 --> 00:36:14.489 but often looked physically out of place, even 00:36:14.489 --> 00:36:17.429 intimidating in their presence. He also embraced, 00:36:17.769 --> 00:36:20.949 consciously or not, a reputation as an English 00:36:20.949 --> 00:36:23.789 eccentric. He was a gangling figure, physically 00:36:23.789 --> 00:36:26.849 awkward. One friend noted he was awfully likely 00:36:26.849 --> 00:36:29.630 to knock things off tables. His behavior was 00:36:29.630 --> 00:36:31.929 certainly peculiar at times. The story of him 00:36:31.929 --> 00:36:34.949 slurping tea out of a saucer at the BBC canteen. 00:36:35.150 --> 00:36:37.309 Or expecting a working class guest at his home 00:36:37.309 --> 00:36:39.190 to dress for dinner, even in the middle of a 00:36:39.190 --> 00:36:41.889 war. It was this mix of excessive politeness 00:36:41.889 --> 00:36:44.809 and odd social conduct that cemented his reputation. 00:36:45.190 --> 00:36:47.030 And his views on religion are another source 00:36:47.030 --> 00:36:49.650 of contradiction. He explicitly identified as 00:36:49.650 --> 00:36:52.449 an atheist and a humanist. He was a robust critic 00:36:52.449 --> 00:36:55.659 of organized Christianity. Yet... Those closest 00:36:55.659 --> 00:36:58.780 to him noted he maintained a deeply ingrained 00:36:58.780 --> 00:37:01.179 religiosity. He would attend Church of England 00:37:01.179 --> 00:37:04.780 Holy Communion. Despite his non -belief, he wrote 00:37:04.780 --> 00:37:07.420 about feeling mean to go to HCC when one doesn't 00:37:07.420 --> 00:37:10.119 believe, but he kept up the practice. He married 00:37:10.119 --> 00:37:11.960 twice in the Church of England and requested 00:37:11.960 --> 00:37:15.340 an Anglican burial. He rejected the dogma, but 00:37:15.340 --> 00:37:17.380 he clearly missed the structure and moral weight 00:37:17.380 --> 00:37:19.840 of the faith. Finally, we have to look at his 00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:22.320 curious obsession with the details of the common 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:25.599 man's lifestyle. including very specific culinary 00:37:25.599 --> 00:37:28.920 tastes. It's a reflection of his focus on material 00:37:28.920 --> 00:37:31.380 reality. His focus extended to the essential 00:37:31.380 --> 00:37:34.480 comforts of the English worker. The pub, fish 00:37:34.480 --> 00:37:37.619 and chips, the radio, football. He had incredibly 00:37:37.619 --> 00:37:40.760 specific tastes, appreciating English beer, but 00:37:40.760 --> 00:37:43.019 famously despising drinkers of lager. He was 00:37:43.019 --> 00:37:45.860 a true tea fanatic. Absolutely. Even having high 00:37:45.860 --> 00:37:48.000 -quality Fortman Mason's tea brought to him in 00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:50.219 Catalonia during the Civil War. And his essay, 00:37:50.300 --> 00:37:52.659 A Nice Cup of Tea, isn't just some charming piece. 00:37:52.920 --> 00:37:55.099 It's a testament to his demand for precision 00:37:55.099 --> 00:37:58.900 in all things. It includes 11 incredibly detailed 00:37:58.900 --> 00:38:01.699 rules for making tea. The most controversial 00:38:01.699 --> 00:38:04.900 rule, which divides the nation to this day, is 00:38:04.900 --> 00:38:07.199 his insistence on putting the milk in first. 00:38:07.420 --> 00:38:09.940 To regulate the amount exactly. He argued it 00:38:09.940 --> 00:38:12.449 was the only way. He applied the same precision 00:38:12.449 --> 00:38:15.070 to tea making as he applied to dismantling political 00:38:15.070 --> 00:38:18.170 propaganda. And we have that charming yet politically 00:38:18.170 --> 00:38:21.530 illustrative anecdote of the rejected essay on 00:38:21.530 --> 00:38:24.590 British food. Yes. In 1946, he was commissioned 00:38:24.590 --> 00:38:27.150 by the British Council to write an essay on British 00:38:27.150 --> 00:38:30.590 cookery to promote international relations. Orwell. 00:38:30.960 --> 00:38:33.619 being Orwell, described the typical British diet 00:38:33.619 --> 00:38:37.219 as a simple, rather heavy, perhaps slightly barbarous 00:38:37.219 --> 00:38:40.239 diet. And because of the extreme post -war austerity 00:38:40.239 --> 00:38:42.380 and rationing, the British Council refused to 00:38:42.380 --> 00:38:43.920 publish it. They were worried it would embarrass 00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:45.960 the country. They officially issued an apology 00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:48.179 when the essay and the rejection letter were 00:38:48.179 --> 00:38:51.179 discovered in 2019. Even his thoughts on stew 00:38:51.179 --> 00:38:53.139 and tripe were too truthful for the state to 00:38:53.139 --> 00:38:58.050 tolerate. So we have traced the radical, methodical 00:38:58.050 --> 00:39:00.550 transformation of Eric Blair, the privileged 00:39:00.550 --> 00:39:03.869 but impoverished imperial officer, into George 00:39:03.869 --> 00:39:06.690 Orwell, the fiercely independent democratic socialist. 00:39:07.150 --> 00:39:09.610 His commitment to truth was born from the trauma 00:39:09.610 --> 00:39:12.610 of the Bernese Empire and cemented by the political 00:39:12.610 --> 00:39:15.860 betrayal he witnessed in Spain. His prose prioritized 00:39:15.860 --> 00:39:18.960 clear, unvarnished truth over all forms of intellectual 00:39:18.960 --> 00:39:21.780 obfuscation, making his life quite literally 00:39:21.780 --> 00:39:24.460 a decades long fight against totalitarian systems 00:39:24.460 --> 00:39:27.219 and their agents. And yet, as he became the public 00:39:27.219 --> 00:39:30.179 face of anti -totalitarianism, the systems he 00:39:30.179 --> 00:39:32.579 fought never stopped watching him. We've established 00:39:32.579 --> 00:39:34.440 that the special branch maintained a file on 00:39:34.440 --> 00:39:37.059 him for decades. With one investigator even noting 00:39:37.059 --> 00:39:39.599 that Orwell's tendency to dress in bohemian fashion 00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:42.280 was proof of his advanced communist fears. That 00:39:42.280 --> 00:39:44.500 surveillance forms the perfect backdrop for the 00:39:44.500 --> 00:39:47.219 final staggering irony our source material reveals. 00:39:47.619 --> 00:39:50.099 The man the British state watched as a potential 00:39:50.099 --> 00:39:52.400 revolutionary was simultaneously working for 00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:56.179 the state. In 1949. Near death and still acutely 00:39:56.179 --> 00:39:58.599 sensitive to the danger of communist infiltration, 00:39:58.800 --> 00:40:01.940 Orwell gave Celia Kirwan, who was working for 00:40:01.940 --> 00:40:04.880 a foreign office unit established for anti -communist 00:40:04.880 --> 00:40:07.539 propaganda, a confidential list. The Information 00:40:07.539 --> 00:40:10.099 Research Department. Exactly. And this list contained 00:40:10.099 --> 00:40:12.800 the names of writers, journalists and intellectuals 00:40:12.800 --> 00:40:15.039 he deemed unsuitable for anti -communist propaganda 00:40:15.039 --> 00:40:18.059 because of their pro -communist or pro -Soviet 00:40:18.059 --> 00:40:20.199 leanings. This is where the complexity truly 00:40:20.199 --> 00:40:24.269 explodes. Orwell. the man who despised doublethink 00:40:24.269 --> 00:40:26.809 and valued transparency above all, was helping 00:40:26.809 --> 00:40:29.210 the Foreign Office filter communist sympathizers. 00:40:29.369 --> 00:40:31.590 While being watched by MI5 for his own socialist 00:40:31.590 --> 00:40:34.570 politics, all after a Soviet agent had successfully 00:40:34.570 --> 00:40:37.150 blocked his greatest work. It raises the ultimate 00:40:37.150 --> 00:40:39.289 question for you to consider. How much did the 00:40:39.289 --> 00:40:41.969 fight against one terrifying form of totalitarianism, 00:40:42.010 --> 00:40:44.590 Stalinism, push the great prophet of moral clarity 00:40:44.590 --> 00:40:47.369 toward the necessary yet deeply compromising 00:40:47.369 --> 00:40:49.929 real politic of the Western system he had also 00:40:49.929 --> 00:40:52.989 spent his life critiquing? Did the lifelong quest 00:40:52.989 --> 00:40:55.329 for moral purity ultimately require an act of 00:40:55.329 --> 00:40:57.829 intellectual compromise? It leaves us with a 00:40:57.829 --> 00:41:00.110 necessary discomfort proving that even the saint 00:41:00.110 --> 00:41:02.469 of common decency lived in shades of gray.