I just finished reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm and am taken aback by how well Orwell showed the evolution of an unchecked government from the start to the bitter conclusion.
For those of you who have not yet read Animal Farm allow me to summarize. The book takes place in modern England at a place called Manor Farm. Manor Farm is owned by Mr. Jones, a farmer who has fallen on hard times and has taken to the bottle. Because of this his farm falls into disrepair causing the animals to rebel. The Rebellion is successful and the animals form their own government. Slowly the government corrupts and a full-fledged dictatorship is installed.
While this book was obviously written as an anti-communist work, for example the character Napoleon is a Stalin like figure who takes over Animal Farm and rules with an iron-fist. The Wind Mill is drawn from Stalin’s grandiose attempts to industrialize the USSR. And the show trials are directly drawn from Stalin’s purges of the USSR’s Army and Government in the late 1930’s.
That aside though, Animal Farm serves another purpose, it shows us what happens when we become too complacent with and don’t keep a Government in check. This is shown throughout the book with the animals blindly following what they’re told and never quite connecting the dots. We also see this today by our lack of caring about what happens in our Government, our lack of fresh players in the political spectrum, and the most dangerous of all is how we’ve let the Federal Government grow unchecked since FDR’s presidency.
My friends I agree with Thoreau when he said “The Government which governs least governs best”, quite simply readers that is not what’s happening. Are federal emission standards governing less? Is forcing banks to loan money to people who obviously can’t pay it back governing less? Is socialized medicine governing less? Nope, but they are evidence of how we have become complacent and have allowed the Federal Government to grow to large. It is time to pick through the numerous jobs of the Government and see which are best for it and those which should be in the hands of the private sector.
-Rem Publicam
Orwell was right
In Politics, Social Commentary on June 3, 2009 at 19:46I just finished reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm and am taken aback by how well Orwell showed the evolution of an unchecked government from the start to the bitter conclusion.
For those of you who have not yet read Animal Farm allow me to summarize. The book takes place in modern England at a place called Manor Farm. Manor Farm is owned by Mr. Jones, a farmer who has fallen on hard times and has taken to the bottle. Because of this his farm falls into disrepair causing the animals to rebel. The Rebellion is successful and the animals form their own government. Slowly the government corrupts and a full-fledged dictatorship is installed.
While this book was obviously written as an anti-communist work, for example the character Napoleon is a Stalin like figure who takes over Animal Farm and rules with an iron-fist. The Wind Mill is drawn from Stalin’s grandiose attempts to industrialize the USSR. And the show trials are directly drawn from Stalin’s purges of the USSR’s Army and Government in the late 1930’s.
That aside though, Animal Farm serves another purpose, it shows us what happens when we become too complacent with and don’t keep a Government in check. This is shown throughout the book with the animals blindly following what they’re told and never quite connecting the dots. We also see this today by our lack of caring about what happens in our Government, our lack of fresh players in the political spectrum, and the most dangerous of all is how we’ve let the Federal Government grow unchecked since FDR’s presidency.
My friends I agree with Thoreau when he said “The Government which governs least governs best”, quite simply readers that is not what’s happening. Are federal emission standards governing less? Is forcing banks to loan money to people who obviously can’t pay it back governing less? Is socialized medicine governing less? Nope, but they are evidence of how we have become complacent and have allowed the Federal Government to grow to large. It is time to pick through the numerous jobs of the Government and see which are best for it and those which should be in the hands of the private sector.
-Rem Publicam