"'As I Please': 12 May 1944" (Excerpted)

In the beginning what is Orwell doing?

Reading a batch of progressive books

How does Orwell describe the progressive books?

Shallowly optimistic

What was Orwell struck by?

The automatic way in which people go on repeating certain phrases

The phrases repeated were said to be fashionable before when?

1914

What are the two favorite phrases of Orwell?

“The abolition of distance” and “The disappearance of frontiers”

What two statements has Orwell heard frequently?

“The aeroplane and the radio have abolished distance” and
“all parts of the world are now interdependent”

What does Orwell feel the effect of modern inventions has been?

Increase nationalism, make travel more difficult, cut down means of communication between countries, and make parts of the world less dependent on one another

What does Orwell say the tendencies have been intensified by?

The World Depression

Up to 1914 you didnt need a passport for any country exept what?

Russia

In the 19th century parts of the world were unexplored despite what?

No restrictions on travel

If an emigrant could scrape together a few pounds for the passage, set sail when he got to his destination what would happen?

No questions would be asked

What two countries does Orwell say the emigrant sets sail for?

America or Australia

True or False, in the 18th century it was normal and safe to travel in a country with which your own country was at war

True

What places does Orwell say were already inaccessible before the war started?

The whole of central Asia, Tibet, Sinkiang, Japanese Empire exept Japan itself, and India

What is the exeption to those foreigners who have not entered Soviet Asia?

Tried Communists

Why has Tibet been a closed country?

Anglo-Russian jealousy

Since when had Tibet been a closed country?

1912

What was Sinkiang theoretically part of?

China

When has India been none too acessible since?

1918

Passports to India were refused to who?

British subjects

What made it dificult to enter Britain?

Wreched anti-Facist refugees discovered

Visas for the U.S.S.R. were issued grudgingly from when onwards?

1935

Who were barred from entering Facist countries?

Those with known anti-Facist record

Some areas could only be crossed if you promised not to do what?

Get out of the train

What sat along all frontiers?

Barbed wire, machine guns, and prowling sentries wearing gas masks

When does Orwell say migration dried up since?

Since the 1920s

The New World kept immigrants out unless what?

They brought considerable sums of money with them

Immigration from where into America has been completely stopped?

Japan and China

Why does Orwell say Europes Jews had to stay and be slaughtered?

Because there was nowhere for them to go

How does Orwell compare Europes Jews to the Czarist pogroms?

The Czarist pogroms had been able to flee in all directions

What does orwell say has “been diminishing for a long time past”?

Intellectual contacts

What does Orwell say is nonsense about the radio?

That is puts people in touch with foreign countries

What does Orwell believe about radio putting people in touch with foreign countries?

It does the opposite

What does Orwell say no ordinary person ever does?

Listens in to a foreign radio

What does Orwell say happens if a large number of people in any country listens to foreign radio?

The government prevents it

How does the government prevent people from listening to foreign radio?

Ferocious penalties, confiscation of short wave sets, and setting up jamming stations

What is the result of governments prevention of foreign radio listening?

Each national radio is a totalitarian world of its own braying propaganda night and day to those who can listen to nothing else

What does Orwell say about literature?

It grows less and less international

What do totalitarian countries bar in literature?

Foreign newspapers

The small number of books totalitarian countriies let in are subject to what?

Careful censorship and issue in garbled versions

What does Orwell say about letters from one country to another?

They are habitually tampered with on the way

What does Orwell say has happened to history books?

They have been rewritten in far more nationalistic terms than before

Why have history books been rewritten in far more nationalistic terms?

So that children may grow up with a false picture of the world outside

What trend has been ongoing?

A trend towards economic self-sufficiency (autarchy)

Since when has the trend towards economic self sufficiency been going on since?

1930

What has intensified the trend for economic self sufficiency?

The war

What does Orwell say about the preventiveness of the trend toward economic self-sufficiency?

It may or may not be reversible

The industrialization of where does Orwell say should help purchasing power and world trade?

India and South America

Why does Orwell say India and South America dont have to be interdependent anymore?

Technological improvements make imports not matter greatly

What innovations does Orwell describe?

Wood made from milk, rubber out of oil, wheat grown in the Article Circle, atebrin instead of quinine, vitamin C tables instead of fruit

What does Orwell use as an example of days where trade mattered?

Napoleons Grand Army marching to Moscow in British coats in spite of the embargo

What does Orwell say scientific progress helps along?

Nationalism and totalitarianism when its the worlds tendency