GEORGE ORWELL – ANIMAL FARM AND THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN 2022
My View From Inside The Turret
I am confident that many of you reading this will be able to say, “I read Orwell’s Animal Farm in high school…” and I am sure that you did. I did to. But I have since re-read it; this time, through the eyes of an adult.
An adult that grew up in the Jim Crow south, through the 1950’s, watching his parents spread their entrepreneurial wings as they opened a business, while I attended school and worked the kind of jobs that one works when in high school – or at least like high schoolers used to work in high school.
I left school about halfway through my university education for reasons I myself still don’t fully understand; but I made my decision and enlisted in the United States Army as a soldier, grade of Private. My fortunes took me to Europe and NATO for a combined total of nine years – during which time, I was able to literally stare into the godless face of communism. But this is not about me … it’s about that farm in the Orwell novel … Manor Farm … and its transformation into Animal Farm and how it might relate to what is happening in America today.
Most will recall that the story opens to drunk Farmer Jones closing up the hen house, getting one more glass of beer and heading for bed … and the animals agreeing to meet in the big barn to discuss a dream of old Major, a prize boar. All the animals are introduced to the reader and the discussion moves on to how hard life is on Manor Farm. Now that it is starting to come back to you, I recommend you get the book and read it all again. So … just how might the actions taking place on Animal Farm be relevant to America in 2022?
We need to fast forward to “The Seven Commandments” as they were first written …
… most especially the 7th Commandment --- “All animals are equal.” You will recall that, in the beginning, life on the farm was about equity – equal outcomes for all. The cows wondered what would happen with their milk --- and as we know, it mysteriously disappeared. The animals all worked to their capacity --- none complained. As time went on, things changed and as we know from our high school reading, the Pigs ultimately emerged as the animals that were in charge of all the other animals and the original “Seven Commandments” were now reduced to only one – “All animals are equal – But some animals are more equal than others.”
In 1963, Martin Luther King wrote on our figurative barn wall ---
“… I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. … I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”
But we are a long way from 1963 and the wording on our figurative barn wall that “… they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character “… much like the original wording on that mystical barn wall in Animal Farm, seems to have changed. Now it reads more like – They will be judged by the color of their skin and not by the content of their character. When did the words change? Why are we going backwards? We are selecting key figures in the government, not by their knowledge and expertise for the jobs they will perform, but rather for their complexion or their ethnicity.
And now, we are faced with the selection of a Supreme Court Judge. We have already been told that the selection with be based on the color of her skin – a black female is what we are told will be the next Supreme Court Justice. Let me be perfectly clear – I have NO objection to a black female Justice on the Supreme Court. I simply want to be sure that the person selected is the MOST QUALIFIED person to hold the position. I am sure that whoever is selected will be the most qualified in the small pool of eligible black jurists --- but who might we have missed in this process … since clearly it is now the color of one’s skin and not the content of their character that is the criteria for consideration and selection.
America is heading down a slippery slope. If we continue to believe that the best among us can be determined solely by the color of one’s skin, then we will surely miss those who’s content of character could best serve America – regardless of the color of their skin. And no matter how much time we spend learning the commandments written on our barn today, we may very well wake tomorrow to find that they are not exactly what we thought they said yesterday.