After her mini-tour de force thread on April 17 which wrapped up with:
To conclude: We may be entering a new economic paradigm where markets become a little less free -- but only as a means to an end in which we can ultimately all be free again. (This differentiates us from those we are competing with, whose objective we believe is authoritarianism…
— Izabella Kaminska (@izakaminska) April 17, 2023
Izabella ran a a quick poll on a different subject and went for a quote from George:
Here’s the relevant George Orwell extract https://t.co/c5S66LyWqo pic.twitter.com/GOqBWd0Svs
— Izabella Kaminska (@izakaminska) April 18, 2023
That whole thread, including comments is also instructive but what really struck me was that at almost the same minute she was going for that snip from Mr. Orwell for the new thread, I was going for this one for the April 17 thread:
"We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power."—O'Brien to Winston Smith in the novel 1984
Like Izzy's pull, that is also via The Orwell Foundation but quite a bit darker. It's part of the dialogue in what is called the interrogation scene, highlighted at the Foundation in:
Orwell – A Celebration: 1984, Torture
Which, if you ask me, is almost as jarring a line as the first sentence of '84:
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.The signal that something is not quite right here.
Yes, I'm probably more pessimistic than Orwell and Kaminska.
At least judging from the quotes.
