It is hardly reasonable to expect a man to give up employment that affords such benefits as the need for food to meet the demands of war. Yet some have criticized Henry Miller for not taking action; he barely spoke of the war in the Tropic of Cancer; and, in their view, it is his moral obligation as a citizen-writer to address it. However, Miller is only defensible because his “mind is always on the peace treaty” (Miller, 143). The silence about war in the novel suggests a position of “extreme pacifism,” which is defensible because of its autobiographical honesty regarding its radical individualism and artistic intent to describe the beauty of staying connected to humanity despite eventual annihilation (Orwell, 1). Miller's passive attitude towards the war was described by Orwell as "a statement of irresponsibility" because Miller acts in a manner of "extreme pacifism, an individual refusal to fight, with no apparent desire to convert others to the same opinion ” (Orwell, 1). Orwell shows that he senses irresponsibility in Miller's view because Miller exclaimed that it was "pure stupidity" to "meddle in these things out of a sense of obligation" if there were no "purely selfish motives" in a conversation he had with him ( Orwell, 1). The endorsement of "selfish" demonstrates Miller's "individualism", because he does not expect anyone to be anything other than a rational egoist, or someone who acts to "maximize his own self-interest" [1]. Furthermore, his refusal to “get confused” shows the passivity of his attitude; shows how he “hardly wishes to control” the “world process” (Orwell, 1). War is also a force beyond a man's control. Orwell also obtains impressions... middle of paper... tributes to society such as work, engages in carnal acts with little remorse; constantly moves from place to place in search of food and shelter; and focuses on the physical. In Tropic of Cancer it was even suggested that he lives on a “higher plane” of existence (Miller, 191). Maybe he doesn't really belong to society. Therefore, it doesn't make much sense for him to fight in something he has no control over, in a society he doesn't belong to, or to fight for or against an abstract idea like a nation he doesn't believe in. The concept of nation is particularly foreign because “ideas must be married to action”; they are “bound to life” (242). It describes a physical world in which abstract ideas are not really abstract. Perhaps there is value in the account of a primordial, non-abstract world that exists on the fringes of society.