From: "Eric Beck" <rayrena at mail.accesshub.net> Date: Tue, 17 Aug 99 15:07:20 -0400
Brian Small wrote
Doesn't Chomsky also mention a Foreword or something, where Orwell says we can point the finger but things aren't any better over here. Orwell points out the corporate control of information in the suppressed foreword?
The Foreward (Introdution, whatever it was) wasn't published along with the novel. --------------------- It was supposed to be published as an introduction to Animal Farm, but the publisher nixed it. Apparently it was forgotten about and found among his papers in the 70s. It was called "Literary Censorship in England."
This is Chomsky quoting it one of his articles (double quotes are Orwell's words):
"The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without any need for any official ban." The desired outcome is attained in part by the "general tacit agreement that `it wouldn't do' to mention that particular fact," in part as a consequence of media concentration in the hands of "wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics." As a result, "Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness."