I understand that Animal Farm is a satire of Stalin and the russian revolution, but I don't understand the message that is trying to tell us.
The book is about a group of farm animals that is being oppressed by the farmers, so the animals, commanded by the pigs overthrow the farmers and the animals get in control but in reality is the pigs who end up controlling the farm and they are as bad as the farmer.
So to me the message is simple: "don't revolt, don't try to change the status quo, nothing will change if you try, so don't do it"
So to me the message is simple: “don’t revolt, don’t try to change the status quo, nothing will change if you try, so don’t do it”
Yeah, you pretty much got it.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. But uhhh this time uhhh just uh Pokémon go to the polls
I think it's that the tyrants are all somewhere else now. The Tree of Liberty just sent me a telegram that it's actually really thirsty for Putin's blood. Yeah, that's how this metaphor works.
That is one of the real headscratchers of American life. "Revolutionary violence doesn't solve anything except exactly one time when it solved all of this country's problems and lead to the creation of our glorious, divinely ordained and faultless republic. But don't you dare get any ideas."
That's where the hagiography of the founding fathers come in. When you combine the two, it becomes "revolution always leads to societal ruin except for the revolutionary war because the founding fathers were just that smart."
In other words, you can probably save yourself the read by listening to a shitty 4-minute song by The Who, assuming you can stomach boomer rock put out by a bunch of Bri*ish pedophiles. Then again, if the alternative is reading Orwell, you're already in the ballpark.
My roomates is a big fan of that band, first time I have seen it mentioned anywhere else. Is it that anticommunist ?
That song ("Won't Get Fooled Again") certainly is. The message is literally "don't ever fight for what you believe in, because the new order will be exactly like the old one," which is a textbook hardline British anticommunist stance if I've ever heard one. It's extra hilarious, because Pete Townshend was briefly in the CPGB's Young Communist League, and is allegedly a Labour supporter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Townshend#Political_views(Also notably absent from that NATOpedia page is the incident in which Townshend got busted for downloading images of CSA, and was promptly cleared of any wrongdoing because British courts just do that if you can throw enough money at them.)
Lyrics; CW: boomer lib shit
We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the songI'll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled againA change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last warI'll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again, no, noI'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half-alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lieDo you?
YeahThere's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are effaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnightI'll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again, no, noYeah
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
A friend of mine grew up in Kerala with an education program that was curated by the communists there.
He told me that when he read Animal Farm, his analysis was that the pigs were like the bourgeoisie.
That actually kind of works, especially with the faux-egalitarianism of liberal philosophy. In this analysis, are the farmers feudal nobility?
Your friend sounds cool btw
Feudal nobility, royalist colonizers, take your pick.
Everyone is equal before the law, but...
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
-- Anatole France
I guess you could read it as an allegory for bourgeoisie revolutions.
even as a lib in high school i thought it was a dumb book to read in school, because the message is 'the soviets were bad because they became indistinguishable from america and britain' which was a weird message to see completely fly over everyone elses head.
not to be too pro orwell, he mostly sucked, but it's more nuanced than it's taught in high school. still anti-communist though.
The message is "I'm mad that the Soviet Union has outside political influence that they used to promote the popular front, and because of this I'm siding with Trotsky."
"Where is Hitler?" is a real armor-piercing question for 1984 and Animal Farm. 1984 arguably still works well because it accidentally ended up describing the capitalist society we're all stuck in, but in Animal Farm the absence of fascists turns a supposed allegory in to a meaningless propaganda fantasy.
That was a great read, put into words my feelings about the book way better than I could have.
As always, fuck George Orwell.
That's the GOAT but I will definitely read it again now (I'm on an anti Orwell kick tonight now I guess)
I'm rapidly coming to regret my prior support of Orwell. I guess that's what growing as a person feels like; regret over stupid shit you said in the past.
the message is that if you do a revolution you mght end up in a situation exactly as bad as you are now. Of course by definition that's where everyone already is so Orwell is just a bit stupid
TL;DR: Whatever the "intended message" and moral, the story as written essentially portrays the revolution as betrayed by the people being useless dumb sheep, who can not even learn to read any of them beyond the intelligensia. The manipulation as written basically boils down to "The farm animals(workers) are fucking stupid and cant understand basic shit, so the pigs make something up and that convinces them".
Edit: Oh just saw this was already linked lol, anyways.
They say you aren't supposed to associate the art with the artist? And to them I have to say is, who is they? What kind of stupid idea is that? If an artist is a fucking snitch who abandoned the movement he was in and worked tk actively harm it im most definitely gonna be calling his art shit because the person was shit. Fuck George Orwell
also he constantly associated his hardcore anti-communism into everything he wrote
the message is that you should always kill pigs
:acab-3:
The functional message is exactly as you describe. You could make some pretty small changes to the book and end up with a much better (albeit still Trot) conclusion.
One thing I really love about the Hunger Games -- really one of the only things I like at all about it -- is
spoiler for the very end of the third book
Katniss, at the execution of the old dystopia's leader, just fucking murders the leader of the rebellion because she recognizes that the leader is a power-hungry monster. The rebellion already succeeded and the old leader dies later, so it's not counterrevolution so much as a purge.
I think a better version of Animal Farm that maintains Orwell's professed ideology would have a segment of the animals attempt a revolt against Stalin Pig and, because the other animals didn't join them because Stalin Pig is a hero of the revolution, get crushed. Then the moral could still be pro-revolution while being anti-Stalin in a way that is, if anything, much more pointed. Still mistaken, a slander of Stalin, and anti-communist at heart, but at least better.
Be careful who ends up as leaders of the revolution? Atleast that's how it was taught in our class
