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As Orwell spent more and more time with the down-and-outs of England, he became convinced that the only remedy for the invidious problem of poverty lay in socialism, a political and economic philosophy arguing that only when the state controls the means of production and distribution will all members of a nation share its profits and rewards. Unlike capitalism, the philosophy holding that a nation's means of production and distribution should be privately owned and controlled, socialism argues that only government regulation of a nation's economy can close the gap between the rich and the poor. Although he was not a virulent anti-capitalist, Orwell did think that only with the gradual introduction of socialist ideas and practices into British life would the poor eventually come to share in the fruits of their nation's prosperity.
As he explained in his Preface to the Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm, "I became pro-Socialist more out of disgust with the way the poorer section of the industrial workers were oppressed and neglected than out of any theoretical admiration for a planned society." After fighting against fascism (an oppressive system of government in which the ruling party has complete economic control) in the Spanish Civil War, Orwell dedicated himself to exploring political questions in his writing. As he explains in the essay "Why I Write," "Every line of serious work I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism." His detestation and fear of totalitarianism — an even more extreme form of fascism in which the ruling party has complete control over all aspects of a people's lives — thus informed much of his literary output.
