I watched "Animal Farm" last night

[Nimrod]

Although it's an allegory of Stalinist Communism, it sent some serious chills down my back. There are just WAY too many similarities to the state of our own country and the administration's actions.

The pigs take the vast majority of food for themselves, while saying over and over again that everything is equally shared and everyone has enough.

The TV is introduced as a distraction, and to make Napoleon look benevolent while continuing to rob the other animals of their food and freedom.

When the windmill is destroyed, Napoleon blames his own personal enemy and pushes the fear of another attack to develop an even tighter stranglehold on the farm.

The pigs' security measures only put tighter control over the other farm animals. Everything is presented as necessary to prevent another attack.

Anyone who voices dissent is declared a traitor and a threat to the farm's security. The animals chant their support for Napoleon in fear of being branded a criminal.

Napoleon is almost never seen except in carefully controlled situations and propaganda films. Instead, Squealer roams about reassuring everyone that they are prospering and heaping praise on the Leader.

Napoleon virtually abandons the residents of the farm, and instead spends his time gorging himself with the wealthy humans.


And the one that really made me shudder...

On his way to the slaughterhouse after being worked to death for no food, Boxer continues intoning "Napoleon is always right" like a mantra.

[ixion]

1. as much as it was a story of Stalinism vs Trotskyism

it is a story of facism applicable to many governments, and a warning that should be taken seriously, as we appear to be entering another era where facism is again all the rage.

It sickens me that the general populace can think there is anything at all 'sexy' about facism. But then again I've never been able to truly understand facist methodology, because I think too much. Facists don't think in depth at all. There thinking is black and white and uncritical. It immediately rejects anything that does not fit into the mold created for a problem, rejects anything that does not fit into the preconceived paramaters defined by the black and white thinking, which is reductionist by default.

So many parallels can be drawn, that it discouraging that more people don't see what's on the horizon. :-(

[Cat Atomic]

2. 1984 is even more chilling.

I read it for the first time a couple of years ago, and it's just eery. I swear- if I'd read it 7 years ago I would've missed the point completely. He wasn't kidding about doublethink, and it's everywhere in today's America.