George Orwell’s files were opened due to a request under UK laws and they revealed he was spied on for over twenty years by M15, the secret service. The man who wrote books dealing with government intrusion into the lives of people had his own life intruded upon by ignorant government spies. In one entry, he is described as having dressed in a “bohemian fashion” and in another is identified as possessing “unorthodox communist views.”
This mundane story of inept spying is a metaphor for what happens when government undertakes the task of spying on the lives of people. George Orwell was a man who was constantly exploring ideas, continually undergoing changes in his views, and was essentially an individualist. Such people do not fit into any category and thus bedevil government spies. Any spying invariably results in distortion of a human life. Orwell devoted his life to defending unorthodox views and using his unique human mind to explore the madness of life. How could that ever have been captured by a government spy?
