"I am doing nothing that is not futility and have less and less to show for the time I waste."
Orwell's diary, 23rd July 1942
From George Orwell’s war-time diary
23.7.42: I now make entries in this diary much more seldom than I used to, for the reason that I literally have not any spare time. And yet I am doing nothing that is not futility and have less and less to show for the time I waste. It seems to be the same with everyone—the most fearful feeling of frustration, of just footling round doing imbecile things, not imbecile because they are part of the war and war is inherently foolish, but things which in fact don’t help or in any way affect the war effort, but are considered necessary but the huge bureaucratic machine in which we are all caught up. Much of the stuff that goes out from the BBC is just shot into the stratosphere, not listened to by anybody and known by those responsible for it to be not listened to by anybody. And round this futile stuff hundreds of skilled workers are grouped [costing the country tens of thousands per annum] and tagging onto them are thousands of others who in effect have no real job but have found themselves a quiet niche and are sitting in it pretending to work. The same everywhere, especially in the Ministries.1
[However, the bread one casts on the waters sometimes fetches up in strange places. We did a series of 6 talks on modern English literature, very highbrow and, I believe, completely un-listened to in India. Hsiao Chi’en, the Chinese student, reads the talks in the “Listener” and is so impressed that he begins writing a book in Chinese on modern Western literature, drawing largely on our talks. So the propaganda aimed at India misses India and accidentally hits China. Perhaps the best way to influence India would be by broadcasting to China.]
The Indian Communist Party, and its press, legalised again. I should say after this they will have to take the ban off the “Daily Worker”, otherwise the position is too absurd.
This reminds of the story David Owen told me and which I believe I didn’t enter in this diary. Cripps on his arrival in India asked the Viceroy to release the interned Communists. The Viceroy consented (I believe most of them have been released since), but at the last moment got cold feet and said nervously: “But how can you be sure they’re really Communists?”
We are going to have to increase our consumption of potatoes by 20 percent, so it is said. Partly to save bread, and partly to dispose of this year’s potato crop, which is enormous.
This is an extract from Orwell’s column in Tribune, first published July 1944. All rights reserved. It remains under copyright in the US and may not be distributed or reused in any way without permission from the Orwell Estate.
George Orwell’s wife, Eileen O'Shaughnessy worked for the Ministry of Information during the war; other government departments included the Ministry of Food. The war-time ministries inspired Orwell’s ministries in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
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