Name: The Lion and the Unicorn
ISBN: 9780241315699

What Hacker News says

foldrJul 2025

Read The Lion and the Unicorn if you want an overview of Orwell's political views: https://www.fadedpage.com/books/20180531/html.php

He was was in favor of wealth redistribution and nationalisation of key industries, but his political views were very far from Communism.

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foldrMay 2022

Orwell was not really an anarchist in his political views. You can get a fairly good overview of his political views from The Lion and the Unicorn:

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...

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brigandishMay 2019

To imply, without the subtelty that might justify such hubris, that they are the ones who are truly above this, because they are just so damned woke.

It reminds me of George Orwell's classic observation (one of many, let's give credit to those who really deserve it) in The Lion and the Unicorn[1]:

> England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box.

No longer is it only an English disease, millenarianism has spread worldwide and become (ostensibly) a distaste for whiteness and masculinity. There was at least some justification in being against nationalism in Orwell's time, none I can see in this irrational racism-and-sexism-as-self-flagellation for this period.

[1] http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lion/english/e_eye

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wallace_fNov 2018

When an exceptionally esteemed mathematician like Atiyah proposes a proof for the Riemann hypothesis, it can still be wrong.

I think that's important--letting experts or ideas be wrong. I don't see evidence of humanity having success solving difficult problems without competition and experimentation.

But this particular problem will continue to grow because it wont be addressed in this way. Committees, bureaucracies, academics and journalists will surely discuss it though.

Orwell speaks more eloquently about this concept in The Lion and the Unicorn.

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dredmorbiusApr 2026

There's one further piece by Runciman (the podcast's creator) on Orwell's "The Lion and the Unicorn", referenced in the series above:

<https://www.ppfideas.com/episodes/history-of-ideas%3A-george...>

I'll also note: David Runciman is one of my absolute favourite podcasters. I'd discovered him through his earlier London Review of Boooks-affiliated Talking Politics, and followed his transition to Past, Present, Future. He's also contributed to several episodes of Intelligence Squared UK and a few free-standing lectures and YouTube videos.

For those not familiar with him:

- He's British, and a former professor of politics (largely political history) at the University of Cambridge. He left that post to pursue podcasting full-time.

- The podcasts (PPF, TP) focus largely on political history and philosophy, ranging from Greek times through the present. For the most part Runciman doesn't dwell on the Sturm und Drang of current events, though he'll occasionally reference them or discuss them in context. At the same time, the background he brings to these events has proved tremendously useful to me. Runciman provides the context missing from so much contemporary discussion and news.

- Runciman's analysis tends strongly to avoid the trite and commonplace. He treats friendly voices critically (as in the series referenced above on Orwell), and those he views poorly, fairly. Among the latter includes an exceedingly insightful analysis of Atlas Shrugged, a book he takes a dim opinion of but nonetheless revealed several points I and a friend, both of whom had read the work numerous times, were surprised by. (The points are well-backed by evidence.) He rarely makes glaring errors (one of the few I can think of was in a recent discussion of the Hiroshima bombing in which WWII-era B-29s are consistently referred to as Cold-War era B-52s), and in one piece where Runciman gives an account of Max Weber's definition of government, as that entity which has "the claim to the legitimate use on physical force" (emphasis added), which is often bastardised to "monopoly on violence". The latter characterisation utterly misplaces the focus from legitimacy to force, and is baldly false. Runciman's account appears in this episode: <https://play.acast.com/s/history-of-ideas/weberonleadership>, at about 15 minutes.

- He's a peer of the realm, 4th Viscount Runciman of Doxford, and related by marriage to John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli, better knonwn as Lord Acton, famous for the dictum "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". I find this delightful, though Runciman himself doesn't make a point of this (the relationship is revealed via associated Wikipedia articles).

As someone who's immensely fatigued by current political chaos and much news, Runciman's information and delivery (admittedly dry and quite RP, both of which I see as good aspects) are a breath of fresh air. Unreserved recommendation.

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frereubuMar 2024

There's a fantastic series of podcasts on great essays by David Runciman from the London Review of Books, which aren't always the ones you'd expect given the authors:

Michel de Montaigne, "Essays": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

David Hume, "Of Public Credit:": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One’s Own": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

George Orwell, "The Lion and the Unicorn": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

Simone Weil, "Human Personality": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

Susan Sontag, "Against Interpretation": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

Joan Didion, "The White Album": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

David Foster Wallace, "Up, Simba!": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

Umberto Eco, "Thoughts on Wikileaks": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...

Ta-Nehisi Coates, "The Case for Reparations": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...