I’m still loving the Orwell diaries. Reading about the early days of the war, day by day, is fantastic.
However, the shock has been how little has changed over the years. This sounds true of the papers today…
“The New Leader[4] is now talking about the “betrayal” by Pétain and Co. and the “workers’ struggle” against Hitler. Presumably they would be in favour of a “worker’s” resistance if Hitler invaded England. And what will the workers fight with? With weapons. Yet the I.L.P. clamour simultaneously for sabotage in the arms factories. These people live almost entirely in a masturbation fantasy, conditioned by the fact that nothing they say or do will ever influence events, not even the turning-out of a single shell.”