Orwell, George -- Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Dave — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 18:20:32 +0000

A good-tempered antinomianism rather of Dickens’s type is one of the marks of Western popular culture. One sees it in folkstories and comic songs, in dream-figures like Mickey Mouse and Pop-eye the Sailor (both of them variants of Jack the Giant-killer), in the history of working-class Socialism, in the popular protests (always ineffective but not always a sham) against imperialism, in the impulse that makes a jury award excessive damages when a rich man’s car runs over a poor man; it is the feeling that one is always on the side of the underdog, on the side of the weak against the strong.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)
(Source)

Orwell frequently used the term "antinomianism," representing defiance of social mores and rules.

Du Bois, W.E.B. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 21 May 2015 12:27:26 +0000

A system cannot fail those it was never designed to protect.

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) American writer, historian, social reformer [William Edward Burghardt Du Bois]
(Attributed)

WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Du Bois, W.E.B. -- (Attributed)