I understand that Animal Farm is a satire of Stalin and the russian revolution, but I don’t understand the message that is trying to tell us.
The book is about a group of farm animals that is being oppressed by the farmers, so the animals, commanded by the pigs overthrow the farmers and the animals get in control but in reality is the pigs who end up controlling the farm and they are as bad as the farmer.
So to me the message is simple: “don’t revolt, don’t try to change the status quo, nothing will change if you try, so don’t do it”
So to me the message is simple: “don’t revolt, don’t try to change the status quo, nothing will change if you try, so don’t do it”
Yeah, you pretty much got it.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. But uhhh this time uhhh just uh Pokémon go to the polls
That is one of the real headscratchers of American life. “Revolutionary violence doesn’t solve anything except exactly one time when it solved all of this country’s problems and lead to the creation of our glorious, divinely ordained and faultless republic. But don’t you dare get any ideas.”
In other words, you can probably save yourself the read by listening to a shitty 4-minute song by The Who, assuming you can stomach boomer rock put out by a bunch of Bri*ish pedophiles. Then again, if the alternative is reading Orwell, you’re already in the ballpark.
My roomates is a big fan of that band, first time I have seen it mentioned anywhere else. Is it that anticommunist ?
That song (“Won’t Get Fooled Again”) certainly is. The message is literally “don’t ever fight for what you believe in, because the new order will be exactly like the old one,” which is a textbook hardline British anticommunist stance if I’ve ever heard one. It’s extra hilarious, because Pete Townshend was briefly in the CPGB’s Young Communist League, and is allegedly a Labour supporter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Townshend#Political_views
(Also notably absent from that NATOpedia page is the incident in which Townshend got busted for downloading images of CSA, and was promptly cleared of any wrongdoing because British courts just do that if you can throw enough money at them.)
Lyrics; CW: boomer lib shit
We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song
I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
A change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war
I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again, no, no
I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half-alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do you?
Yeah
There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are effaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again, no, no
Yeah
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
A friend of mine grew up in Kerala with an education program that was curated by the communists there.
He told me that when he read Animal Farm, his analysis was that the pigs were like the bourgeoisie.
That actually kind of works, especially with the faux-egalitarianism of liberal philosophy. In this analysis, are the farmers feudal nobility?
Your friend sounds cool btw
Feudal nobility, royalist colonizers, take your pick.
Everyone is equal before the law, but…
even as a lib in high school i thought it was a dumb book to read in school, because the message is ‘the soviets were bad because they became indistinguishable from america and britain’ which was a weird message to see completely fly over everyone elses head.
not to be too pro orwell, he mostly sucked, but it’s more nuanced than it’s taught in high school. still anti-communist though.
The message is “I’m mad that the Soviet Union has outside political influence that they used to promote the popular front, and because of this I’m siding with Trotsky.”
