Damn straight he did. He understood human nature to the point of being able to make dire predictions of the outcomes of what was brewing in his time.

Ayn Rand talked about this too. People never understood how altruism as the ultimate moral good could be undesirable.

What makes Orwell so fascinating is that he was a HUGE Socialist - who started to see the problems with socialism/communism. Leftists though read his book at just think that is socialism done wrong - but its part and parcel of the leftist mindset.

But Orwell and Rand make so much sense - they were very far ahead. It's all clear now.

How I think about it:

Leftists think the only moral good is something that adds to the "greater good". In Nazi Germany it was the fatherland - in Russia it was mother Russia for example. Anything that does not further this good is "evil".

They also believe that the ends justify the means.

You put these two ideas together - you have things like forced altruism - aka stay home until the disease is gone. You have things like abortion - an unwanted child would hurt society. You have things like euthanasia - the old and sick are a burden on society. You have suicide bombers and kamikazes. You have dictators and authoritarianism.

This is why I despise the neocons and Rinos who talk about compromise and unity. You cannot have any unity with people whose entire moral system is incompatible with yours.

People on the right believe that government exists to protect individual rights and that these rights spring out of the Christian Western morality that believes that you should treat others how you want to be treated.

The Rinos on the right are phonies - they either don't understand the thinking behind leftists or they think just like them. But they aren't on the side of freedom or the founding fathers.

They are socialists pretending to moderates..

Orwell was a naive idealist, very much left leaning. He went and fought on the Spanish "civil" war with the side of the commies. But his naivete was due to inexperience.

Once he was on the ground, he saw the nakedly harsh in-fighting between the various Marxist groups - his being on the losing side. When his side eventually lost the internal power struggle, he was prosecuted and convicted (in absence, since he had managed to escape) as a traitor.

So he learned the realities of the world from experience and his intellect allowed him to do a great exposition of it, in a way that is accessible for everyone to see.

In short - he was an anarcho-socialist whose party was basically thoroughly crushed by the commie-socialists, so he had first-hand experience.