Anthony Burgess: Ingsoc and Ingsynd

Рет қаралды 293

Жыл бұрын

Socialism and syndicalism in England: Burgess, writing in 1984, points out that the English have become the laziest race on earth, the consequence of 'the victory of syndicalism, which promotes the worker's rights to the end of his doing as little as possible for as much money as possible. What I find most saddening in modern Britain is the death of pride in work well done. To the employees of British Rail, pride in the running of the railway system would look like a shameful selling-out to the consumer. Socialism always seeks to destroy the principle of the dignity of service'.

Пікірлер: 18

@scottgraham1143 Жыл бұрын

Very interesting what he says about striking miners during the war, as I thought it was all The Road to Wigan Pier before and then a sudden jolt towards socialism after the war. Everything gets skewed by hindsight, so such images take me back to those dark days, but I still wonder if it was all planned (Lima Declaration UNIDO 1975).

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess Жыл бұрын

Must say I don't blame the miners for the Betteshanger strike of '42.

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess Жыл бұрын

Burgess was, of course, thinking of the 1970s, where the previously often decent, noble, reasonable objectives of trades unions had become utterly self-defeating and often ideologically directed, as in the footage here, where the syndicalists were voting large numbers of workers out of jobs. This is a long way from the sober, rational industrial relations of West Germany and its Wirtschaftswunder.

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess Жыл бұрын

Yes, I rather thought it had been a bit of a jolt myself, so this is indeed a useful corrective.

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess Жыл бұрын

What is the rôle of this Unido bureaucracy?

@scottgraham1143 Жыл бұрын

@@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess It's the United Nations. A plan came about to transfer manufacturing to developing nations, which meant Western industrial nations had to divest themselves of around 30% of their manufacturing base. At the same time the US was making agreements with China for inward investment and development of infrastructure which was weird considering they were hard-core communists.

@londoncalling151 Жыл бұрын

We were put out of Manchester in the Seventies because of the Closed Shop. Ulster Irish, quiet and drinking heavily. Anthony Burgess, like all squaddies, reconciled this country. Frank Carson, Spike Milligan, Tommy Cooper, Bob Monkhouse: looneys pulled together by national service. Cockney Jews also. This wil come back again, because it works. SNP? Sinn Fein? Plaid Cymru? Yes please. In the meantime, please take the young fellows and show them the UK.

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess Жыл бұрын

Put out of Manchester because of the closed shop? I'm very interested in this. Please tell me more.

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess Жыл бұрын

Good point about people being brought together by the war and by national service post-war. Of course Burgess hated being a squaddy; he thought (quite rightly) that he should've been made an officer; he experienced deep frustration in Gibraltar, and utterly detested the major placed over him, Meldrum. But I would say that the war was creatively good for him. (For him, though. 😂 No army service for me, thanks very much, if you don't mind.)

@louduva9849 Жыл бұрын

Bad takes abound.

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess Жыл бұрын

What are you on about?

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess Жыл бұрын

You a syndicalist, feller? You a socialist? Or are you just another ignorant troll? What I’ve noticed about people like you, with your fatuous, piddling little girly comments, is that you’re incapable of developing an argument. You can never explain why you oppose this or that stance by this or that writer. You know not the art of debate, of exchanging views, of self-cultivation through give-and-take of ideas. All you can do, cleaving to all the putrid orthodoxies of the moment, is to deposit your little drop of urine, like the cur that you are. Get out of this channel and do not soil it again.

@everythingflows3639 Жыл бұрын

Even to refer to a "take" shows a certain level of idiocy.

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess Жыл бұрын

@@everythingflows3639 Indeed. That 'take' really takes the biscuit. The imbecile is now barred from the channel.