Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not money, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not money, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not money, it profiteth me nothing. Money suffereth long, and is kind; money envieth not; money vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. . . . And now abideth faith, hope, money, these three; but the greatest of these is money.
~ I Corinthians xiii (adapted)
Plagiarism. You stole that from George Orwell.
George Orwell’s birth name was Eric Blair.
Who knew?
George Orwell absolutely despised poseurs like you.
As you would know, if you knew anything about him and his writing.
Stalking Utopia In Barcelona
Peter Byrne
Swans
March 14, 2011
Ghosts argue back and forth in the old heart of Barcelona. One of them, George Orwell, was caught up in urgencies that left no time to gape at the sights. He arrived in the city in 1936 as a writer curious about the Civil War. His better self took over and he signed up to fight for the Republic as a volunteer with the POUM workers’ militia (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista). He spent 150 days on the Aragon front. His entire Spanish adventure is set down in that monument to plain speaking and literary modesty, his Homage to Catalonia…
Seriously you should not be quoting G O – he would have utterly despised you and everything you stand for…you would realise this if you had actually read his work.
PS – “@ndy” – just one final comment – going to Spain, joining a militia and fighting in the Civil War is not quite the same as writing on an “anarchist” blog in the comfort and safety of suburban Melbourne. So you’re not really in G O’s league and shouldn’t presume to quote from him (much less plagiarise him).
G’day Andrew,
You really are a glutton for punishment.
A few things.
First, have you considered the possibility you may have some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder? Almost 11 months ago (on 2010/04/27 at 6:30 pm) you wrote:
BAN ME FROM THIS POOR EXCUSE FOR A BLOG! PLEASE! I BEG YOU!
Since then, you’ve submitted no less than 17 comments.
If pain persists, please see your doctor.
Secondly, anyone familiar with Orwell’s life and writings would know that he considered himself a socialist, a political perspective which was confirmed for him precisely as a result of the Civil War, and in particular in response to his experience of the anarchist flavour of revolutionary Barcelona. In terms of his participation in armed conflict during this period, Orwell wrote that had he not chanced upon the POUM, on reflection he should have liked to have fought alongside the CNT-FAI.
Thirdly, Orwell’s greatest contribution to the war was not his soldiering but his writing. It was this writing, especially Homage to Catalonia, that helped expose the Communist counter-revolution to an English-speaking audience.
Finally, your last comment makes little sense. That ‘going to Spain, joining a militia and fighting in the Civil War is not quite the same as writing on an “anarchist” blog in the comfort and safety of suburban Melbourne’ is self-evident. (Neither, for that matter, is drawing attention to this fact.) If I’d claimed otherwise, your remark might be apposite. Further, if the litmus test for quoting Orwell was a shared biography, nobody would refer to his work in this manner. And yet they do, because your observation is simply asinine. In summary, you’ve demonstrated that you’re quite incapable of making any kind of real contribution to discussion on my blog. As such, it’s time to say goodbye.
PS – “Andrew” – just one final comment:
In case you haven’t seen this:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/victorian-neonazi-used-as-medic-in-afghanistan-20110322-1c58u.html
Yeah… disturbing, but not all that surprising. The Hammerskins worship violence, and this bloke’s hardly the only neo-Nazi to serve either in the military or as a mercenary in recent times. Prolly blog about it later.
I was touched.
I was not only touched. Maybe. As a manly man. I shed. Maybe.
Regardless of plagiarism, and everything else said so far. Instead of whinging, stop for a moment and look a bit deeper into the message of the quote. Encourage people you know to understand, and encourage yourself to put the message into your own life.
The message isn’t for the obvious greedy corporate companies and governments etc. It’s for everyone.
Everyone revolves life around money!
Does anyone really believe life is supposed to be that difficult!?!?
Orwell was a scab. He wrote to his handler in these terms “I could also, if it is of any value, give you a list of journalists and writers who, in my opinion, are crypto-communists, fellow travellers, or inclined that way, and should not be trusted as propagandists.” The list was passed to the Information Research Department at the Foreign Office, but was removed from the papers lodged at the Public Record Office.
http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-informant.htm
Déjà vu.
Nice to see you are reading the Good Book Andy… your redemption draweth nigh… perhaps.
For full healing of your brain and soul.. I recommend a read of 1 Cor 15… just the thing you need. Put Adorno, Marcuse, Habermas and their ilk away mate they’ll just cause worms to grow in your brain (a pox on the Frankfurt school! Grrrr.)
Look at poor Bertrand Russell…
“…the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair can the soul’s habitation be safely built.”
Aaah welcome to Andy’s world “unyielding despair” or “baseless utopian optimism?” But Andy 1 COR 15 will fix you 🙂 Specially the solid reasoning of v 19 and then… 20!
But once your head is unscrambled by v 19 and 20 you might be in a fit condition to embrace the truth of v 3-8.
The alternative, Andy, sometimes comes through your chicken scratches and this is it… v 32 you’ll have to read that yourself.
Seldom have I seen such confidence exhibited on the highway to hell.
Living easy
Loving free
Season ticket for a one way ride
Asking nothing
Leave me be
Taken everything in my stride
Don’t need reason
Don’t need rhyme
No stop signs
Speed limit
Nobody’s gonna slow me down
Like a wheel
Gonna spin it
Nobody’s gonna mess me ’round
Hey Satan
Paid my dues
Playin’ in a rockin’ band
Hey momma
Look at me
I’m on my way to the Promised Land, wooh
I’m on the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell
Highway to hell
Cheers.
Reach-Me-Down Romantic
Terry Eagleton
London Review of Books
Vol.25, No.12, June 19, 2003
He was the son of a servant of the Crown from a well-heeled South of England background, who shone at prep school but proved something of an academic flop later on. A passionate left-wing polemicist, he nonetheless retained more than a few traces of his public-school breeding, including a plummy accent and a horde of posh friends. He combined cultural Englishness with political cosmopolitanism, and detested political personality cults while sedulously cultivating a public image of himself. From a vantage-point of relative security, he made the odd foray into the lives of the blighted and dispossessed, partly to keep his political nose to the ground and partly because such trips furnished him with precious journalistic copy. Coruscatingly intelligent though not in the strict sense an intellectual, he had the ornery, bloody-minded streak of the independent leftist and idiosyncratic Englishman, as adept at ruffling the feathers of his fellow socialists as at outraging the opposition. As he grew older, this cussedness became more pronounced, until his hatred of benighted autocratic states led him in the eyes of many to betray his left-wing views altogether…