Hmm …

… Bogus Advice for Op-Ed Authors – Lingua Franca - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education.

(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Well, Orwell doesn't say to never use the passive voice. He says, "Never use the passive where you can use the active." That means he acknowledges that there are times when you must use the passive. I think his overall point is best illustrated as he himself illustrates it:

Now that I have made this catalogue of swindles and perversions, let me give another example of the kind of writing that they lead to. This time it must of its nature be an imaginary one. I am going to translate a passage of good English into modern English of the worst sort. Here is a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes:

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Here it is in modern English:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

This is what Orwell was objecting to. And his objection deserves to be sustained.