“Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” George Orwell on Why I write.
A bit of discussion at the moment about the Daily Mirrors fake pictures is – unfortunately also not too far away from what is at the moment discussed in small on the Indymedia Scotland email list about a feature with some inaccurate facts in it: “How much truth is there in reporting? And does it help to cling to the facts? What about if (some) of the facts turn out to be wrong? How much does it matter? Is this a general or a singular occurrence which comes with writing, pictures, films, reporting? And why do people write if they don’t want to tell the truth? What is the truth – and how much manipulation is there in (mass) media – and even in Indymedia?” .
Anyway, George Orwell also wrote the amazing “why people write” observation, which I found on the blog whilst googling, a bit changed in the regards of “why people blog”. There is also an entry of the first Microsoft employee, who got fired because of a comment on his blog. Read it. Unfortunately, the links don’t seem to get through on the RSS feed for the indybloggers. But try to read it, it’s interesting: Apparently, he was unlucky enough to reveal on a side remark that they also use Macs in Microsoft, especially for graphics.
Why people write:
- Sheer egoism
- Aesthetic enthusiasm
- Historical impulse.
- Political purpose.
As for me I am definitely not writing because of 2, aesthetic enthusiasm. My primary purpose is definitely 4, at the moment; political purpose, followed closely by historical impulse, and yes, 1 – sheer egoism is present, too, especially when moaning about conflicts.. 🙂 and trying to sell my ideas and beliefs. Will discuss these questions more in the content.
However, nobody can possibly say it as well as Orwell:
“I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.”