Why I Write

Orwell continued his argument that wartime was an opportunity to facilitate social change. Not only did it pressure institutions to either perform or fail, it reminded the average citizen that they did not exist in a closed society but were part of a deeply interconnected global society. Orwell believed that socialist leaders must use England’s patriotism to unify its citizens. He acknowledged that violence was a possibility with any revolution. However, the oppositional minority would be so small as to mitigate this threat.

With a socialist revolution, it was possible for England’s people to propose their war aims. Orwell proposed a six-point plan that dealt with internal governmental restructuring and the changes necessary for administering England’s Empire.

The first point was nationalization of England’s major industries. By doing this, Orwell predicted that no one can live without working (thereby eliminating the “idle rich”) and the ruling class’s dissolution. By nationalizing production, each worker would feel part of the State: “the emphasis will be shifted from ownership to management, from privilege to competence” (76).

The second point addressed limiting income in England so that no one class was suffering from significant financial disparities. The third point concerned overhauling the education system and allowing pupils to receive State-funded education based on merit and not privilege. Fourthly, Orwell proposed giving India Dominion status, which would allow them equality and alliance with the ability to secede at any time. He regarded this as more beneficial than immediately granting them sovereignty because of how economically and militarily dependent India was on England. He argued other colonies of England should receive the same Dominion status.

Orwell’s fifth point proposed establishing an inclusive Imperial General Council. Here, England’s decolonized subjects would be represented. Orwell’s final point was to declare alliance with countries that had suffered from fascism, such as China. Orwell had faith that weekly publications would give the six-point plan publicity.

Orwell suggested that the general population’s desire for socialist revolution would make it inevitable, as well as calling forward competent socialist leadership. Though his six-point plan was radical, he argued that English socialism would leave the national character untouched. The past would be assimilated into a newer and more productive future of equality, federation, and the death of capitalism.

Orwell compared patriotism and conservatism. He argued that the essential difference was patriotism’s “devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same” (85). He faulted the intelligentsia for their lack of patriotism and for harming England’s political development leading up to and during World War II. Though the left-wing intelligentsia were professedly anti-fascist after 1935, they did not explicitly support an alternative political system. They looked abroad to Europe for political, social, and economic models of society, which was rooted in a lack of faith in England. This resulted in a lessening of England’s morale. They needed to actively strengthen morale instead, Orwell argued. England’s aim, he said, should be to hold strong against fascist powers long enough for allies in America and England’s colonial holdings to assist in fighting.

Orwell acknowledged the ideological appeal of fascism, particularly in the lower classes where the difference between the absolutism of fascism and that of capitalism may have not seemed obvious. Orwell argued against the importation of European ideals, which threatened to undermine the “English genius.”

It was imperative, Orwell argued, that England choose active revolution over ideological apathy, and that the awakening qualities of revolution be enacted before the English government fell to Germany. Orwell ended this essay with the claim that revolution would make England more English; that by enacting such widespread yet needed change, England would move forward and “grow greater” match the threat of European fascism.