Why George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ is more relevant than ever before
Oink oink 🐽
Good morning fellow animals! 🦋
These days, when I open my newsfeed in the morning, I sometimes wonder at these strange times we live in: A second wave of Covid-19 outbreak in China that sparks another lockdown for 100 million people? Rising numbers of unemployment, police brutality, and ‘hygiene dictatorships’ across the globe? Migrants who have to walk hundreds of kilometres to get to their homes? Designer brands launching diamond-embellished face masks? A baby that claps on-beat to a song in her car-seat? A puppy that can’t bark? (Wait, what?) 🙊
If we don’t change the way we consume goods, services and ideas, we will be f*cked very soon.
I fully trust that deep inside, we humans instinctively know what is right and what is wrong. It seems, however, that the world we are living in (and thanks to social media and the internet we know so much more about it) successfully hinders us from using our collective consciousness to turn things around, and make the planet a better place for all of us. Instead, it empowers us to create FOMO, spread fear and lies, focus on the insignificant, and enslave ourselves voluntarily to a larger vision of what is to be thought, to be bought, and to be taught.
Living in India, where more and more strange developments are taking place, and coming from Germany, where the way the country’s post-Corona-economy will determine not only the future of the ‘fatherland', but also for all of Europe, things seem upside down, out of place, and simply not right. Most people I talk to about it, feel it too - but they can’t pin it down and describe it.
In times like these, we need writers to find the words that we can’t find on our own.
When the overload of information creates more confusion than clarity, we need them more than ever: the genuine writers and poets, the independent journalists and reviewers; in short: the people phrasing and re-phrasing their thoughts into clear sentences, factchecking and questioning statistics, until they deliver comprehensive pieces of information that are not just part of any propaganda machine.
A master of this art was George Orwell.
Born as Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 in India, (yes, my friends, he is a Bihari), he stated in “Why I write” (an outstanding essay written in 1947) that “Animal Farm" was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole”. And, oh boy, how he succeeded!
Published in 1945, “Animal Farm: A Fairy Story” is not a book about how to care for animals (as famously suggested by Shilpa Shetty 😅); no, it was the author's poetic reaction to the rise of Joseph Stalin who, according to Orwell, converted the hopes and dreams of the Russian Revolution into a totalitarian, personality-cult, and terror-driven regime. If you want to get a quick overview of what’s going in the book, simply press play, and watch the amazingly on point “thug summary” until 2 min and 22 seconds (and then the video continues with an analysis after that). 😎
In the book, a group of animals rebel against their owner Mr. Jones, a careless drunkard, and chase him away from the farm. What starts as an equal and hopeful movement of four-legged beings, swearing to never deal with humans again, slowly spirals out of control when a group of pigs announces to take over - “for the larger good of all”. Suddenly, rules change overnight, food rations shrink, and work hours increase. Nonetheless, (almost) all animals are willing to succumb to the situation, as the ideals of the revolution, living a life of peace and prosperity without a proprietor, are still fresh and promising. Only when the ideas start to fade, the truth of reality exposes itself - and the animals find themselves in a situation worse than under Mr Jones.
“Animal Farm" ends with the famous words: “The creatures looked from pig to man and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
This little 95-page-novella is not only part of every 100-best-books-of-all-times-list (in addition to Orwell's second international bestseller “1984”), but will remain so in the future. Why? Because “Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" is as timeless and tragic as the nature of man itself. Are we simply 'too human' for equality, humility, and peace?
If you look around, it seems that war and conflict are the normal state of things, and peace is just a happy little break; a rejuvenating time-out on the battlefield of life; wisely used to freshen up, make love and many heirs, to look at some sunsets, and - while drinking cold beer and cheering to prosperity and health - simply think up new reasons to start the next brawl. The question we all have to ask ourselves is: How can we stop this cycle?
Orwell himself said that 'war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is bliss'. Three years ago, I took him on his word (mostly the last), moved to Goa and befriended many dogs and cats and cows. In the end, the sheep in “Animal Farm” were right: “4 legs good, 2 legs bad”. I only don’t want to hang out too much with Goan snakes - but hey, they don’t even have legs! 🐍😅
It’s time to get back into the classics!
If you don’t feel like reading, I found this lovely audio-book-version for you. Get comfy on your couch, grab a cup of coffee, and educate yourself about the dangers of a totalitarian future that is looming above our heads. Reading is more important now than ever!
Stay safe, and stay happy. Don’t succumb to the darkness around us. With every breath, with every word, with every action: Choose the light. 🌟
With love from Goa,
Isabelle 🌿
