We see history repeating itself time and time again.
Animal Farm was written as a story about the Russian Revolution by George Orwell. But what was said a 100 years ago is just as true today.
He was brilliant using animals to describe totalitarianism and failed communism and it’s likely one of the most famous books of the 20th century.
Napoleon:
The pig who emerges as the leader of Animal Farm after the Rebellion. Based on Joseph Stalin, Napoleon uses military force (his nine loyal attack dogs) to intimidate the other animals and consolidate his power.
He developed a secret police force to control the country and began to set high targets for agricultural and industrial production, causing many ordinary workers to suffer severe hardship and hunger.
Napoleon the Pig also modified many of the basic principles of communism by allowing privileges for leaders of the army and the secret police and many of his own supporters.
The farm animals worked hard as they believed in the basic fairness of the principles of Animalism (Communism) and want to earn a better life for all. But the pigs became administrators, working less hard by simply overseeing the work of the rest. Becoming leaders of the other animals on the farm and obtain more advantages and privileges themselves, using language cleverly in order to turn the new situation to their advantage.
In modern day speak it will sound like: New World Order (NWO), The Great Reset, Basic Universal Income, 15 Minute Cities, ULEZ, smart cities, smart cars. Anything smart to dumb us down as well as “you will own nothing but be happy”, because they will own everything.
As the novel progresses Napoleon becomes more of a tyrant and dictator, controlling all the animals on the farm by force and managing their thoughts by using clever words and slogans which, when used for example by the sheep who blindly follow Napoleon, can drown out the opposition.
Language is shown in the novel (and reality) to be a way of manipulating reality, of concealing important truths and turning black into white.
At the end of the novel the absolute totalitarianism of Napoleon and his followers is reflected in the change of words in the commandment: All animals are equal to a perverted version: All animals are equal but some animals more equal than others.
In Orwell’s latest novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which totalitarianism is also satirized, an official language, ‘Newspeak’, is used by those in power to enforce narrow and unquestioning rules and behaviour.
In 2021, Animal Farm became a banned book in many countries and heavily censored in the U.K.
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