COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN INVESTMENTWATCH
Even George Orwell,
the man the left always props up, felt strongly about the necessity for an
individual to keep their firearm(s): “That rifle on the wall of the laborer’s
cottage or working-class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see
that it stays there.”
The author is ignorant.
Orwell had a rather mixed-stew of beliefs, and not all the
components were things many would approve of today, especially liberals.
He is quoted widely on specific matters, and on those
matters he wrote eloquently and with a correctness most accept.
But, for example, on the matter of Russia, Orwell came to
sound just like a McCarthyite. Quite unpleasant. He demonstrated his
willingness to betray people he regarded as dangerous “reds.” He kept lists.
Concerning Orwell and sexual matters - an area which is in
fact very revealing of character, for sure - the less said the better. He
enjoyed buying young girl prostitutes on trips abroad and even once begged his
wife if she would object to him enjoying one on a trip they were taking
together (the incident is recorded in at least two serious biographies).
Anecdotes of his relationship with women of his own age are
not appealing, including one of his pretty much throwing a woman to the ground
and jumping on top of her.
A similar, although even more extreme, example of the same
phenomenon is found in Thomas Jefferson, a man Americans, especially of the
Right, love to quote.
Yes, he penned a few eloquent slogans, but he also wrote and
very much believed in things bordering on the ridiculous. There were strong
elements of a tyrannical temperament in his beliefs and behaviors, and some
would say his eloquent, frequently-quoted lines were a form of self-serving propaganda
and image-manipulation for history.
And even the good things he wrote, Jefferson ignored close
to completely when he actually had power, both as President and as Governor of
Virginia.
He misused power and demonstrated hypocrisy and genuine cowardice
on a number of occasions. His penchant, almost an obsession, for secrecy was
dark and ominous. Jefferson, who loved being viewed as the perfectly
enlightened man, was observed by one visitor to Monticello beating a slave
quite harshly. The visitor recorded the incident for posterity.
Jefferson's sex life also was not something that speaks
highly of his character.
He started sleeping with Sally Hemmings when she was a 13-year-old
girl, after his wife died. She was, of course, a slave child on his plantation.
We have an affidavit from one of Sally’s grown children stating that Jefferson
was his father.
Jefferson never in his lifetime, despite a plantation with
over two hundred slaves, was able to earn his own living. He was a flop as a
lawyer. His tastes and demands were extravagant, he borrowed money from friends
regularly, and he died a bankrupt.
By the way, a talented yellow journalist of the day, Philip
Freneau – someone Jefferson secretly hired when he served as Secretary of State
to publish attacks against his boss, George Washington – later, feeling
badly-treated by Jefferson, wrote of Jefferson’s dark side and died under
mysterious circumstances.
It was said by some that Hemmings herself was the offspring
of his late wife’s father, another plantation owner, something, which if true,
suggests how ghastly the whole empire of slavery was. So, not only a slave, but
Sally may have been his wife’s younger half-sister.
