George-Orwell
George Orwell (Image: BBC)

As the Melbourne numbers fall as expected, while in the UK more have died of COVID-19 than did in the Blitz, the chorus of News Corpuscles describing Dan Andrews' Victoria as "Orwellian" is getting so repetitive that it's time to look at what George Orwell actually said.

What he said about means, ends, the state and repression. One presumes the "Orwellian" crowd mean to evoke Nineteen Eighty-Four's picture of a grim, utterly totalitarian society, regimented in every measure. 

We'll return to that comparison with leafy Melbourne in a minute, but let's look at what Orwell really thought about what the state should do in a comparable situation -- i.e. the UK in WWII.