https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/06/27/the-20th-century-limited/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usFri, 12 Jun 2026 01:32:51 -0400<![CDATA[George Orwell&#8217;s experiences in the Spanish Civil War forever changed his view of totalitarianism. It had been the one dimensional stereotype portrayed by the classic left-wing ideology. In that narrative the enemy was capitalism and its representative the fat man in striped trousers and a top hat. What Orwell learned after watching the Communists crush spontaneity in Spain was that Bolshevism could be totalitarianism too; which frightened him because it acted in the name of the poor and the oppressed; and if one could not trust the do-gooders, then who could you trust?  This video excerpt from a BBC biopic of Orwell, with the author played by an actor but whose lines consist of his published words only, captures the moment when his understanding of totalitarianism became universal.  Where once he imagined that totalitarianism consisted of an enumerable number of fascists who would all disappear if we shot one each, he suddenly saw that totalitarianism was a face that haunted every human undertaking. Fleeting, shifting, but indisputably present.]]>Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:20:58 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2009/06/27/the-20th-century-limited-n188663