Blog 1 The Road to Wigan Pier leads to Intel Inc.
I couldn’t have a writer as my hero,and George Orwell aka Eric Blair would not have had one either.His heroes were ordinary people and their struggles.The content of this series of blogs is based on Orwell’s books starting in no particular order with The Road to Wigan Pier.
“Blog”I magine is a word Orwell would have despised.I can hear him muttering “Blag” under his breath in some smokey drinking pub in London. Infact had it existed at his time,I am sure he would have utilised it in his stories in a way that left the reader in no doubt about it’s potential to do harm.
A desire, however , to make a well researched and planned piece of writing, well,he would have found that a worthy cause. As writing was in his blood, he lived his writing as indeed writing helped him live. Although, now we are generations away from the time that Orwell graced this Earth ,blog it must be.
A blog is surely the antithesis of effort as someone with Orwell’s intellect and writing ability would easily identify. I have my prompts about grammar, spelling and layout. Green lines telling me I could do better. Orwell had a notepad,a typewriter and his brain.
Orwell would no doubt laugh at the irony of a machine telling me how to write.Perhaps he would see the potential for malicious manipulation.He would surely argue the case for talent as indeed he was a great one.
Revisiting “The Road to Wigan Pier” , I admire his faith in The Working Class as people,The Ethic of Valuable Work and a disavowel of Great Writers such as HG Wells,DH Lawrence and George Bernard Shaw is honest and forthright.
Would you rather hear about a writers imagination or a workers reality? Orwell goes further and surmises that these esteemed writers have either cuckolded themselves to the bourgeoisie or are so blinkered to the benefits of unstoppable progress that they treat the drawbacks as inconveniences eg. in Well’s books there are elites and servants. The servile get the short end of every stick. A sort of right wing utopia.
In an endeavour to improve my craft, I shall blog and at the same time share my appreciation of Orwell and convey I hope how his ideas affect us today in quite unexpected ways. We may not be living 1984,but Orwell knew what would make things better for more people,his heart was in the right place.
Part One of ” Wigan Pier” gives a description of the harsh reality of life for the unemployed in a period when Colonial Britain was slowly coming to an end. It is a record of back to back houses detailing sizes of rooms ,how many people lived in them,poor sanitation, and poor diet. The working class getting married and having children while unemployed ,with no prospect of a steady income,and being shunned by a middle class who would do no such thing themselves.The middle class as they looked down on the working classes would pay their way no matter what,let the sun never set on their idea of what was right or wrong.The workers seemed more in touch with reality and the continuation of the planet.The middle classes petulant and priggish.
I particularly like that Wigan Pier, is a myth,a Music Hall Joke.It does not exist,it was the material for of a joke by George Formby snr in his very successful act. A mythical stop on an inland cruise,a wooden structure to distribute coal.The search for a glamorous side to Wigan continues, perhaps it is their rugby team.Orwell does not mention rugby or rugger as he might have called it ,so perhaps the Wigan Warrior’s did not exist in his day,they seem quite Glamorous though.
When in Part Two of “Wigan Pier” ,he describes the Middle Class Socialists and their Vegetarian beliefs, I found myself thinking,well, nothing much has changed.
Orwell states something quite true even today,that Working People do not believe in theoretical Socialism, they believe in the part of Socialism that gives them better pay and conditions for the work they do and enough money and leisure time to raise their children should they have them or pursue a hobby or a dream in their own time should they have one.
Orwell comes across as both brash and humorous with his ideas. He says in “Wigan Pier” that the Bourgeois Socialist have never came up with a “good song” . Not like the rousing songs in the pubs and working men clubs he visited while researching his writing and indeed “finding himself”. Orwell would have hated that phrase “finding myself.”
However,he is definately on a journey of discovery to understand his role in a Society which to him is decaying.The Class System which separates human beings in a irrational ,judgemental,discretionary and debilitating set of rules which serve no purpose other than to encourage inadequacy and selfishness is suffering from the demise of The British Empire and the disturbing effect of Wars.
Orwell himself suffered the humiliation of belonging to the Lower Middle Class and being shoulder to shoulder with the privileged classes while at Eton,but with no money.
He mentions, when talking about Russia’s communist system and detailing the perceived success of the introduction of Mechanisation in increasing productivity in what was probably a fairly Brutal Soviet Russia with Stalin in charge.
He states that there is a Salmon Canning Factory in Moscow. I am amused that in the same breath he says he has no access to Russia,that he really doesn’t know what is going on there,apart from the reports of how many tractors they build and their efforts at production,but he mentions this Moscow Canning Factory.
It peaked my interest.So what happened to the Salmon canning factory in Moscow. It’s like having a Pilchard Tinning Factory in London .
Orwell saw Mechanisation and the exponential Production Targets as indications of failure of the Russian Socialist System .
Mechanisation would lead to the demise of Working people skill levels and free time. Let’s face it anyone who has worked in a low skilled ,repetitive job and done overtime to achieve production targets is going to relate to this. His premise is that the emphasis on successful production figures is not indeed Socialism ie. not everyone benefits, but purely a form of Capitalism.Where does the Canned Salmon Factory profits go if it is successful?
So, with the aid of Modern Technology and Google,I asked the Internet.Was there still a Salmon Canning Factory in Moscow? Surely, it had been a failure,just a fish in a pan like everything in Soviet Russia was according to Western Ideaology and thinking .Well no, and the answer surprised me and made me think.Orwell would I feel pat me on the head.Well done girl!Though I can’t help but feel he would be surprised too at the result.
Dorboflot ,a global Salmon Canning Company, established in 1911, has one of it’s Head Offices in Moscow today. Their website is most informative from their production figures they seem to be thriving.They have a number of Canning factories across Russia.
“We procure only wild fish because only it has a natural taste” They proudly state.
I googled a bit further, “Wild Salmon,where does it come from.”
Basically, two large producers ,Alaska and Russia.However ,the industry has been impacted significantly by environmental factors.Overfishing,pollution and loss of habitat.Wild Salmon and their spawning grounds needed protection.
Enter the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation American philanthropists . Gordon Moore was the founder of Intel Corporation and the creator of Moore’s Law ,which enabled Silicon Valley’s continued progress in smaller more efficient devices….basically why we have hand held mobile phones and why Mainframe Computers are no longer the size of houses.
The Foundation stepped in and provided funds to safeguard the North Pacific Ecosystem and enable the salmon to successfully migrate and provide their important role that Nature intended for them.
Gordon and Betty’s money provided for the Kol River Salmon Refuge on the Russian Far East Kamchatka Peninsula.544,000 acres of protected wild salmon ,the first of it’s kind.
So thanks to American Philanthropy, Dobroflot can continue producing it’s “tasty” Salmon
I think this connection would have made George very happy.The coming together of American Philanthropy and the continued success of a Russian Canning Company along with the benefit of sustainable fishing grounds is quite amazing and is indeed true Socialism in action.
thenotsomightyom 