SOURCE: Orwell, George. “The Limit to Pessimism.” In The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Vol I: An Age Like This, 1920-1940, edited by Sonia Orwell, pp. 533-35. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. 1940.

In the following review of The Thirties, Orwell finds Muggeridge's skepticism useful for analyzing a corrupt era, without precluding patriotism.

Mr Malcolm Muggeridge's “message”¹—for it is a message, though a negative one—has not altered since he wrote Winter in Moscow. It boils down to a simple disbelief in the power of human beings to construct a perfect or even a tolerable society here on earth. In essence, it is the Book of Ecclesiastes with the pious interpolations left out.

No doubt everyone is familiar with this line of thought. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The Kingdom of Earth is forever unattainable. Every attempt to establish liberty leads directly to...