We have a new book this week, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. I know that this is a short book and originally I was thinking that I was going to cover it in four sessions. Once I started reading, it became very apparent that each chapter is it’s own subject. Or said another way, I don’t think that chapter one has that much to do with chapter 3 in terms of concepts. They are interrelated but they are also very standalone.

Unlike 1984, we do know from Orwell (Blair) that this was deliberately written as a precautionary warning against Communism. It’s a cutesy little tale some might call a parable or a story with point. This isn’t my first time through the book, I read it in 2019. But, it definitely fits into my Friday genre.

It is no small consequence that Orwell picked the pig to be the instigator. They are among the smarter domesticated animals and they have a penchant for breaking the rules. In farm terms, that means destroy things, escape, etc. They can be brutal, killing other animals that they perceive to be weak. And finally, if they truly do escape they become feral within a generation.

Major, the pig had a dream. He dreamt that there was a place that the animals were in control of production and therefore their lives. The animals would band together and work in lock stock together to perform all the tasks that they have been forced to do throughout their lives.

Along with working toward the common goals, they would also reject all things that are seen as human. These would be things like wearing clothes, sleeping in beds living in houses, using money, drinking/smoking, use money or trade. Major died a few days after revealing his idea. I believe that Major was a caricature of Lenin.

It is perfectly natural for beings to want to own their own production. The opposite of that is actually defined as slavery. I think that is is also natural for an oppressed group to reject all trappings of their oppressors. It’s either that or the trappings become appropriated.

As with all ideas, they are just that. When attempted to be put into practice, it is often times more complicated that it would be seem. In addition to that, when things are large it can take more than a lifetime to come to fruition. When others assume the tasks, they may not take them in the same direction as the visionary intended.

I was reading about Lenin and while he was no Stalin, he certainly was not afraid to make some heads roll. It would seem like his galvanization into the ways of Marx was the execution of an older brother in 1887. But in reading about his first government apparently he was not the most radical. I had never realized that the Bolsheviks were not one and the same as Lenin. They wanted total conversion of all private assets to be redistributed while Lenin was a more reserved socialist.

My point with all of this is that a Visionary sets the path and the tone. But, no one lives forever and once that power has transitioned, the vision will be molded or adapted to the person succeeding. Therefore, the manifestation of the original vision may be far from what the founder intended.

End Your Programming Routine: I will take this week by week. As it stands, this will be a ten week series, one per chapter. But if it makes sense, I will combine chapters in the course of this study. This chapter was only an introduction. The lesson this week is a revolutionary has an idea of something different than what is. It’s not hard to persuade a population that understands and identifies with the benefits of the revolution.