And in this corner coming in at Week 2, we have the bantamweight champion of the dystopian fiction universe, Animal Farm. There is still a lot of fight left in it as we have only seen one chapter. Animal Farm came out swinging with the Animal’s grievances against the human population. They landed some solid hits with accusations of starvation and abuse. This chapter they are going to put their fight plan into action but I think the humans are going on the ropes before it is all over.

Kind of silly of me but, I heard it in my head when I sat down to write. I hope that I can always laugh at myself and take some chances. Life is too short to be stiff and serious all the time.

All chapters of this book are short, so I am not going to keep repeating that. But as a synopsis of the chapter we have the animals chase out the Jones. Manor Farm is renamed Animal farm. The new leaders of the movement are the pigs Snowball and Napoleon. They come up with seven rules to represent the new movement. They are as follows.

  1. Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy
  2. Whatever goes on four legs, or wings is a friend
  3. No animals will wear clothes
  4. No animal shall sleep in a bed
  5. No animal shall drink alcohol
  6. No animal shall kill another animal
  7. All animals are equal

While this is seven specific rules, another word for that is a core values. Each successful movement is guided by things such as core values. Values differ from beliefs as values drive internal behavior as well as being outwardly visible. They help devise a code of conduct for behavior as well as provide a framework for evaluation when specific rules do not exist.

While not surprising, you could probably describe these values as anti-human. This type of behavior is sometimes described by the boomerang effect. Briefly, that means that when people get tired of a long period of one set of ideas or operating parameters, they often double down on on going the opposite direction in policy and attitude. The periodic swings in the US House of Representatives is a good representation of this.

I thing that it also goes without saying that movements are judged by their core values or more specifically adherence to. I think most people consider the legitimacy or sincerity of all members particularly leaders when they meet and live their core values. How many times are Christians chastised for not living up to values? Ironically, most non-believers have no concept of sin and fallibility. Nevertheless, it is an example that most people can relate to.

It is a little early to say how this will go, the animals just got started running their own farm. Will they all get it? Will they all buy in? Will they truly be equal? I think that we have enough human data to answer the question, but will the animals be any different?

End Your Programing Routine: Buying into core values are the first step to programming. Once the premises have been accepted, many decisions are boiled down to litmus tests. “Is this situation good” is compare to established criteria within your values and there is really very little additional judgement is involved because the outcome has already be predetermined.