George Orwell, after being subjected to drone attacks, asked: What’s the big deal?

For some reason I’ve been reading a lot of H.L. Mencken and George Orwell lately. Both are terrific writers and interesting political observers. I enjoy both but prefer Orwell’s politics as well as his prose.

I noticed that in June 1944, Orwell wrote this about the German buzz bombs hitting London:

I notice that apart from the widespread complaint that the German pilotless planes “seem so unnatural” (a bomb dropped by a live airman is quite natural, apparently), some journalists are denouncing them as barbarous, inhumane, and “an indiscriminate attack on civilians.”… But I would not deny that the pilotless plane, flying bomb, or whatever its correct name may be, is an exceptionally unpleasant thing, because, unlike most other projectiles, it gives you time to think. What is your first reaction when you hear that droning, zooming noise? Inevitably, it is a hope that the noise won’t stop. You want to hear the bomb pass safely overhead and die away into the distance before the engine cuts out. In other words, you are hoping that it will fall on somebody else.

Tom again: Speaking of Orwell, I bet he wouldn’t be surprised to see that the Chinese parliament now features 83 billionaires. Some animals are just more equal than others.