Ignoring Orwell

The Venerable Bede posts a very insightful piece on Orwell and his lessons.

"The advantages of a lie are always short-lived," he writes in 'Through a glass, rosily', an analysis of Leftist efforts to portray accurate reporting of the horrors of Sovietism as counterproductive and worthy of suppression even when allowing that they are true. "And yet," he continues, "genuine progress can only happen through increasing enlightenment, which means the continuous destruction of myths."
There's no question that he would have been as horrified as anyone by, and surely more vocal in his condemnation of, the incarceration for free expression and opinion that is now a rarely questioned commonplace of British law. In 'Freedom of the Park' he writes:

The degree of freedom of the press existing in this country is often overrated... On the other hand, freedom of speech is real. On the platform, or in certain recognized open air spaces like Hyde Park, you can say almost anything; and, what is perhaps more significant, no one is frightened to utter his true opinions in pubs, on the tops of buses, and so forth.

I'm sure even the author of 1984 would not have dreamed that a time would truly come, and come so fast, when that last sentence - especially in the chillingly prescient reference to being "frightened to utter" opinions - would be totally and unequivocally and legally untrue, and yet his books would still be read, and admired and venerated, by the very people responsible.
Yet his analysis of the circumstances by which such an end might be reached is, as always, spot-on:

The point is that the relative freedom which we enjoy depends on public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends upon the general temper of the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them... The notion that certain opinions cannot safely be allowed a hearing is growing... And even those who declare themselves to be in favour of freedom of opinion generally drop their claim when it is their own adversaries who are being persecuted.

Read the whole thing here.