We made it. Both Friday and to the end of the book. Next week, I will have a wrap on the whole book, but this week I will stick to just the last chapter. Now that we have fastidiously evaluated each chapter, was the pace too slow? Maybe. I am ready to move on, but I have appreciated the relief as the rest of my life has gone crazy.

This is that time lapse part of the story. Years go by and life before is forgotten. The spirit of the revolution had dimmed and life is what it is. I referenced the Earnest Hemmingway quote in my podcast earlier in the week “gradually, then suddenly”. This book is the perfect illustration of that. Each chapter there were small changes then you look back and nothing is what it was.

Of course, that phrase wouldn’t have any impact without going through the rest of it. That is the clarity of perspective. Of the original rules, I think nearly every single one of them was modified. And dare I say that not for the better. But lets save the overall analysis for next week.

As the sad life moves on, the story closes with the pigs interacting with humans. It appears that pigs and people have become peers. There is no more animosity between the two species. The last sentence ends with pig looks like man, man looks like pig, neither distinguishable (paraphrased).

There is a theory that if you continue to do things a certain way, you start to assume the principles and traits of that way. I suppose the simple way of thinking about this is when you are a teenager and start hanging out with the a goth crowd. You may not make the whole transition of dress and makeup but it is pretty likely that you are going to adopt at least some of the identifiers, even as simple as dressing in all black.

Before I get out of my league with goth association, what I am saying is your mother’s sentiment of your friends are a reflection of you. Teenagers (read naïve) fight so hard to present the neutral point that they have not changed or are not influenced by association and that is just not true. The difference between a teenager and myself is that I can see and recognize the effect. I choose to continue association rather than it happening without my cognizance.

I have written about my passive personality. There aren’t a lot of things that get me real juiced up. When it is hunting/gardening/fishing/camping season, I always think that I am going to do this and that next year and get more into it. The more distance that is put between the season, the less motivated I get and then I start over the next year. To me, that isn’t real passion that is an interest. You could call it semantics, but to me passion is something that is done hell or high water.

I do find joy and interest when others are passionate about what they do or are talking about. For instance, I listen to some podcasts about permaculture. It is not my particular jam but because the host is passionate about it, I find myself adopting and becoming interested in it. It could be categorized that I have been persuaded to look at things from a different perspective.

Permaculture is the combination of two words Permanent and Culture. There is a heavy component of self sufficiency in growing your own food and self reliance in living outside of normal systems. That is how we get to the culture part of it. And that’s the part of it attracts a lot of the touchy-feely, granola crowd. In years past, I would have scoffed at that and wouldn’t be found ten miles away. But, I have to come to the understanding that we both want the same things, just with a different approach to how to get there. As a result, I have come to empathize with that perspective to no small degree.

To quickly summarize, a group of individuals agree to live together with an established set of permaculture ethics.

1. Care for the Earth
2. Care for the People
3. Fair Share (Return of Surplus)

Number three is the most controversial and has two interpretations. The interpretation that attracts the hippie crowd is a strong socialist leaning: I should get my fair share from you. From my outside observation, this kind of thinking eventually leads to the breakdown of ethic number two. I think the more enlightened crowd interpret fair share as I take as much as I need and return the rest to the earth or the people, whatever is more appropriate.

Permaculture also has rules. I am not going to go into them at this point. What I am trying to say that if a homeowners association had ethics there would be no difference between living that way and living in a camp in the woods. Too many people sign up for rules that they don’t agree with and then get into battles with their neighbors.

Animal farm also had rules, but they didn’t have ethics. Rules without ethics become arbitrary and subject the whim of the rulers. Rules get changed because they don’t adhere or support a principle, they simple augment the power of an organization. They are used for punitive effect or justification. The pigs and humans began to assume traits of each other because of their proximity and habits. The deeper question is why in the first place? I think that I will explore that next week

End Your Programming Routine: I was struggling to get something going this morning and then all of the sudden permaculture came into the picture. I sense a podcast in here now that I see the connection between ethics and rules. The programming here is don’t let your associations define you. It is natural to want to look and act the part when associating, but we need to have our own ethics sorted out before we start adhering to the rules.

We are getting close to the end of the book. There is one more chapter to go. I will tell you a secret, not only have I read this book before but I also finished this weeks ago. The book is so short that you can probably read it in a long evening. But that is OK, I am taking it slow to dissect and enjoy it. I have to clear the cobwebs a bit. Now that I have scanned through the chapter again, I am ready. So, let’s go.

Boxer worked himself to death. After the windmill was blown up and they had to start over, it was Boxer that did the heavy work. In the process he got old, injured and used up. Boxer’s last appearance in the book had him taken away to the glue factory while the pigs were saying he was going to the hospital.

I have been Boxer in my life. I have ignored problems thinking that I can solve them by working harder. This was a huge lesson in my life. In some ways, this is the inspiration for this AltF4.co endeavor. It came across in a different time and a different manor, but I now know what it means.

I was in my twenties and I was running the laboratory. Every plant task that failed to work properly, I would assume as my own. Pretty soon, I was running formulating, wastewater, quality, IT and automation. I had a mentor and he told me as I was leaving that the company would always let me take more work. It was up to me to stop it.

I think more than I was trying to do it all, I was not getting anywhere other than convincing myself that I could do it better. What I was ignoring was the system of accountability for the people not doing a proper job and the consequences for not doing so. I was so vested in the outcome that I couldn’t see my effort was self-harmful as as much as helpful. I didn’t leave as a result of that (story for another day), but I left wiser as a result.

I won’t say that I completely got this lesson, it probably took another 15 years but now I have it. If you work for someone else, you do not own the output. It doesn’t matter if there is profit sharing or employee ownership, you still do not own the output. I think of it this way, any form of revenue sharing is actually a trap to provide the illusion of effort equals results.

The ones that set the rules are limiting the distribution pool. Then there are others that do not deserve to be rewarded. Decisions are made with no input and rules are made to prevent risk or innovation. For all of these reasons, I have realized that for me to be happy with my career and output, I need to be in control of it. Ultimately, this is what drove me to leave my job and it is a strong driving factor in Altf4.co.

Those concepts are the reason that socialism will ultimately have it’s detractors. I didn’t work like a madman because I wanted to get rewarded. I did it because I believed it needed to be done. That being said, when it comes to compensation, I saw that I did all this and this is all there is. Oh and to top it off, things aren’t really better.

Getting back to the book, this chapter is the perfect illustration of the iron law of bureaucracy. There are those committed to the mission (Boxer) and those committed to the organization (pigs). I think that it goes without saying that whichever side you pick, you are all in. How would it look if your star performer actually worked himself to death. That was a situation that had to be dealt with for PR purposes.

It seems completely logical that the pigs would lie about Boxer’s disposition to make everything seem normal. After all, a revolution would be pretty dangerous to the organization. That is really the moral of the story. You can trust the when a choice between the organization and the constituents has to be made, those that are on the other side of the iron law are going to make the choice for the organization.

End Your Programming Routine: Of course, charity is a tenant of Christianity. That being said, charity is not collectivism. And speaking of morality, thou shall not steal. If you are not doing your fair share, then that is stealing which is a sin. Collectivism actually fosters inequality. Reading this is a warning, if you work yourself to death then you have to know that it is your choice, not because there is personal profit.