Orwell Diaries, August 9, 1940:
“The money situation is becoming completely unbearable… Wrote a long letter to the Income Tax people pointing out that the war had practically put an end to my livelihood while at the same time the government refused to give me any kind of a job. The fact which is really relevant to a writer’s position, the impossibility of writing books with this nightmare going on, would have no weight officially… Towards the government I feel no scruples and would dodge paying the tax if I could. Yet I would give my life for England readily enough, if I thought it necessary. No one is patriotic about taxes.”
Fast forward to the disciple - Christopher Hitchens on Charlie Rose. Hitch calls Clinton there a ”reptilian”. I like that description for a self-centered person, in fact it rings the immediate bell. There are people I know who are juts that, reptilian.
Further reading: