![]() ![]() ![]() But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law. In a society in which there is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is public opinion. This illustrates very well the totalitarian tendency which is explicit in the anarchist or pacifist vision of society. This is clearly something which Orwell himself, and the majority of his readers who have just lived through a world war which opposed a regime which was totalitarian in its nature, would find it hard to agree with: ![]() For instance, Orwell argues that in Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels, Swift depicts totalitarianism, but because Gulliver (and, presumably, by extension, Swift himself) approves of the Houyhnhnms’ society, Swift admires the idea of a totalitarian society in which dissident opinion is unacceptable. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |