(series: the book i just finished).
whenever a booklover buys a book out of some random used book bin for a dollar, they are hoping to find a jewel. and that is what happened with this book. it's a non-fiction book by george orwell. the first half is about poverty. the second half is about socialism. so, you know, not the jewel i imagined. but a jewel nonetheless.
i'm part of a Christian community that thinks a lot about how to live life alongside people from different economic classes, and not as a ministry project...but because thats what the Kingdom of God looks like. walls of all kinds broken down. which is why i love this quote from the book:
"The fact that has got to be faced is that to abolish class-distinctions means abolishing a part of yourself. Here am I, a typical member of the middle class. It is easy for me to say that I want to get rid of class-distinctions, but nearly everything I think and do is a result of class-distinctions. All my notions - notions of good and evil, of pleasant and unpleasant, of funny and serious, of ugly and beautiful - are essentially middle class notions; my taste in books and food and clothes, my sense of honour, my table manners, my turns of speech, my accent...When I grasp this I grasp that it is no use clapping a proletarian on the back and telling him that he is as good a man as I am; if I want real contact with him, I have got to make an effort for which very likely I am unprepared. For to get outside the class-racket...I have got to alter myself so completely that at the end I should hardly be recognisable as the same person."
which i don't completely agree with. ideally, the differences discovered will be appreciated and not changed...but it's still thought-provoking...
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