Animal Farm was published 0n this day in 1945. Maria Popova (@brainpicker) has written a piece inspired by George Orwell, on the freedom of the press, that every member of the chattering classes should read. She ends with this quote from E.B. White
"To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment. "E.B. White
Orwell's critique was of government control of ideas. White's point was that a 'free society' does not need the government to decide which ideas are fit to express and which are not. The intellectual establishment polices itself.
White's critique is as relevant as ever today as we ponder the political and economic challenges we face.