It has been a long time since I actually read this chapter. My plan was to stub out concepts weeks ago but as you know I have been a little busy. So, I skimmed through it a couple of days ago to refresh my memory on what happened. Doing so, my inference was confirmed that this is a powerful chapter.

When you read this chapter you get a lesson in how to manipulate a population. It makes me wonder how many people have read this book and yet either forgot or ignore what happened. One headline I read said 11 million copies sold. Surely a portion of those went to libraries or schools where they were read over and over again. The reality is that 11 million over 75 years is not really that many in a country that has 300 million people. Maybe people have just not read it?

Nuance is subtle. I was reading one opinion on Animal Farm and I came across this quote. “Every line of serious work I have written since 1936 has been, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism.” I suppose that democratic socialism works in Sweden where they never had the same expectations of freedom as the United States. Yet, I look at what we are doing as a country and I just cannot get clarity that we are not moving toward totalitarianism.

There are at least three main things that happen in this chapter. The first one happens when Napoleon sick’s the dogs on Snowball. This is the one that is the most covert and significant. It is mentioned earlier in the book that the puppies were removed from the rest of the animals and educated. It is this act that we need to learn our lesson. Isolation and indoctrination is the tactic.

Do you want to know what Drag Queen Story Hour and gender fluidity have to do with Animal Farm? That would be isolation and indoctrination. Create laws that ensure kids are in school, then start pushing doctrine to move the status quo. It won’t be long until the entire population is numb to insanity and we can no longer say A is A. My kids are within a presidential election of being full fledged adults. They are already a product of this environment because it has been normalized within their lifetime.

The second concept is repeat a lie long enough and it will become the truth. How many people believe that if you put a frog in boiling water and slowly turn up the heat that it will eventually boil to death? We have heard it our whole lives, but it simply is not true. That is a small and innocuous example but there are others.

This is a common tactic in politics today. For instance, elect Republicans and they will repeal the healthcare mandate or lower taxes. No they are not, no they are not, no they are not; repeat after me. My tax bill has gone up by tens of thousands of dollars a year since the Trump tax cuts. I have heard from others that theirs actually went down. But that is a segment of business owners and that is who got the benefit of the tax cuts. By twisting the facts, there were tax cuts implemented but it was for a certain segment of voters at the expense of the rest.

This plays out in the book by Napoleon campaigning against Snowball with plans to build the windmill. Napoleon was dead set against the project, even peeing on the plans. But as soon as Snowball was chased off the premises Napoleon immediately adopted the project. What is the truth here? What side can you really trust? I think this leads into the next concept.

There is something called The Iron Law of Bureaucracy. There are individuals committed to the mission (Snowball) and those that are committed to the institution (Napoleon). Eventually, those committed to the institution will take over running it, forever. This is the reason why I cannot get behind democratic socialism because it just keeps moving to totalitarianism. It is just a matter of the speed.

End Your Programming Routine: I suppose that this last concept is where I struggle the most. I am always a mission oriented guy and it seems like it frustrates me when I can’t change the organization. Intellectually I have been aware of the Iron Law of Bureaucracy but it is so difficult for me to internalize and accept. I feel like it is unjust and just grates me the wrong way. I suppose that just accentuates my need to work outside of systems.