George Orwell
A friend gave me a book on George Orwell, the author of Homage to Catalonia, Animal Farm and 1984.
At a time when passions were running high, with Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Franco and others dominating the world stage and countries everywhere polarized, Orwell rejected both the right and the left.
How intelligent. How far-sighted. How courageous.
Isn’t it amazing to think how few people in his day thought of taking that position? In a society where a member of the intelligentsia had to be either for Hitler or for Stalin to be considered having an opinion worth considering, he opposed both sides. Many publishers refused his work. He was not widely read before his death.
But what an inspiration to us.
Today we can take the lesson he taught and extend it. I personally have no interest in the right or left – may I call them “extremes”? – not only in political terms, but in mental, emotional, and spiritual terms as well.
You could rightly call me a “centrist,” if you like, but a centrist in more senses than just the political. The center is the place of balance, of the middle way, of the heart.
I haven’t a drop of interest left in me for politics as it’s presently practiced. I don’t feel any loss from having almost totally let go of seeing the world through the eyes of the mainstream press. My hat’s off to those who are serving us by keeping their periscope up.
And, yes, we’re building the alternative.
I wonder what Orwell thinks as he looks down from upstairs and watches the building of Nova Earth.
I honestly think that he’d recognize the spiritual application of the principle he gave his life to: The sovereign independence of the individual.