Lessons From Animal Farm

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George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” turned 80 on Aug 17. Published in some 150 languages, millions have read and re-read this novella, reminding us of Oscar Wilde's saying: “If a book isn’t worth reading again, it isn’t worth reading at all”.
And at each re-reading, one will discover more truths about the nature of dictatorships and of man’s injustice to man, all cleverly satirised in “Animal Farm” using farm animals and simple language that stays in the head long after the book is put down, yet again.
When I first read it at 15, I understood little - I didn’t know enough history, politics, or human nature, whether good, bad or ugly. And I had never been bullied in school or by my older siblings. Seeing the news these days, I’m indeed lucky!
Re-reading it in my 20s, staying alone in a planter’s bungalow, I took delight in the fact that just like Mr Jones, the owner of “Manor Farm”, before it was taken over by the farm animals and renamed “Animal Farm”, my superior too, a bullying kind of Englishman, was on the way out of this country.
ADSThen came the 1980s, when a bitter power struggle in Umno led to a split within its ranks, followed by Ops Lalang, the sacking of senior judges, Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s cunning shift to well-disguised authoritarianism and later still, the various amendments to our Constitution.
How I marvelled at the genius of Orwell!
Revolution gone wrong
Someone once described “Animal Farm” as the history of a revolution gone wrong. As a matter of fact, most revolutions do. It tells the story of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution that saw Vladimir Lenin and the communists seize power in Russia, promising its working class a paradise on earth.
But hope soon turned to despair. Millions suffered starvation and shortages under Lenin’s leadership. The Communists had little experience in running an economy, and being theorists rather than doers, they messed things up.
Vladimir LeninLenin was forced to make a U-turn. He introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921. Private ownership was allowed once again. Hardworking farmers became wealthy kulaks (a peasant in Russia wealthy enough to own a farm and hire labour).
Shopkeepers and intermediaries prospered again. Personal initiative and ingenuity flourished.
The economy was turning around. Then along came Joseph Stalin, following Lenin’s death, which saw a ruthless power struggle with Trotsky. Trotsky was eventually expelled from the party and exiled.
In “Animal Farm”, Stalin becomes Napoleon, the handsome boar and Trotsky, Snowball, the exiled boar. Stalin now insisted on collectivisation of agriculture, causing great hardship all around.
The four-legged beasts on “Animal Farm” likewise organised themselves into a collective after kicking out Mr Jones. Private ownership was abolished.
But sincere beasts like Boxer, a cart-horse with an exceptional work ethic, literally worked their butts off. They exemplified the working class, but their focus on work made them vulnerable to manipulation by the ruling pigs.
Repression, propaganda
ADSIn the Soviet Union, with the stage left all to himself, Stalin bullied the masses into submission using repression and propaganda, the twin tools of authoritarian states.
Though glorified as the bulwark of the revolution, the masses were nothing more than slaves. Ditto the animals in “Animal Farm”, now under the heel of Napoleon and living under the ideology of “Seven Commandments of Animalism”.
Joseph StalinUnder Stalinism, show trials led to gulags in Siberia. Millions were imprisoned. Purges were frequent. Citizens ratted on each other. People lived in perpetual fear. To look interested in something aroused suspicion. The KGB was watching. The guards were in control now. And no one was brave enough to call out right from wrong.
If Stalin had corrupted communist ideology for his own purposes, then Napoleon in “Animal Farm” was using the “Seven Commandments of Animalism” as his personal tool to ensure that he and his coterie of favourites enjoyed a life of ease and comfort, pig style.
He cemented his grip on power, resorting to stealth and secrecy to amend these commandments.
As the novella progresses, the first and foremost commandment of Animalism, “All animals are equal”, becomes “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”.
Nothing new to us! But what could the rest of the poor animals do except slave away, their pain and suffering sedated with yet more clever propaganda?
The chief propagandist in “Animal Farm” was an ambitious young porker called Squealer, described in the book as an effective and very convincing orator.
He is a master manipulator of words and situations. He is fat, pale-skinned and has small eyes, even for a pig. He is always on the lookout for the mistakes of the other animals to ensure “ideological purity”.
He could also turn black into white and come up with quips that made him look clever and learned. Blind to his own faults, he was the first to turn on others for making an offensive comment or an annoying opinion.
Ahem! Be warned that Squealer is not a doctor, a politician, or anybody else you know. Also, any similarities to persons, dead or alive in Malaysia, are purely coincidental.
How it ends
And how does the book “Animal Farm” end? The pig leadership, though proclaiming their hatred of humans, becomes more and more like them in every way.
The final scene depicts a grand dinner held in a large building where high-ranking pigs and humans are seen feasting and making merry like old chums, highlighting the complete corruption of the revolution’s ideals.
It couldn’t have ended more honestly - the oppressed always end up taking on the mantle of the oppressor. The immorality of the incumbent holding office becomes the immorality of the successor to the office.
The greed and cruelty of rulers become the greed and cruelty of the subjects when the position is reversed. Orwell saw through it all! We too must!
“Animal Farm” has been translated into all the major languages of the world, barring Arabic, our national language, and a few mother tongues with too few speakers.
But there is always an “Animal Farm” waiting in the wings of all societies and countries.
We must remain ever vigilant! - Mkini
MURALE PILLAI is a former GLC employee. He runs a logistics company.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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