A popular adage tells us that, “If you want to hide something, hide it in a book” ; similar to, “If you want to hide a tree, hide it in a forest!”
Animal Farm is a great book. It is an allegorical and dystopian novel by George Orwell, published in England on August 17, 1945.
According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalin era in the Soviet Union.
Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War.
The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. In his essay ‘Why I Write’ (1946), he wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in which he had tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, “to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole”.
Orwell wrote the book from November 1943 to February 1944, when the wartime alliance with the Soviet Union was at its height and Stalin was regarded highly by the British people and intelligentsia, a circumstance that Orwell hated.
It was initially rejected by a number of British and American publishers, including one of Orwell’s own, Victor Gollancz.
Its publication was thus delayed, though it became a great commercial success when it did nally appear, partly because the Cold War so quickly followed World War II.
So, that history of the master pencraft (I just invented that word...it doesn’t exist!) aside, the question we should all be asking ourselves as East Africans, following the abductions and political intolerance in Kenya, which includes the abductions of foreigners – Turk Mustafa Genc (who was my former employer at Turkish Light International School), Ugandan Kizza Besigye and lately Tanzanian Maria Sarungi – is have we started sliding down the slope of complacency in our various societies, where professional morals about current social, political and economic choices are not based on the needs of the whole, but for the benefit of a few?
Should we be likening these developments to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where ‘old Major’s’ dream about a brightened future, a paradise where animals could live together in peace and harmony, the enthusiasm of the three pigs (Snowball, Napoleon and Squealer) that led to the birth of Animalism, and the zeal and commitment of the loyal cart-horse Boxer to the cause, were all overtaken by complacency, greed and egoism?
As in the animal farm, we see in society how leaders of previously harmonious organisations, businesses and nations are quibbling over power (similar to the leadership struggle between Napoleon and Snowball). Power really corrupts absolutely!
We observe the alarming rate at which hostile takeovers are occurring in society and how appointed propagandists (like Squealer) justify every action their leaders (Napoleon) take.
For those familiar with Squealer, he continually convinced the other animals that Napoleon was a great leader and was making things better for everyone—despite the fact that the common animals were cold, hungry and overworked.
What is interesting about the Animal Farm is the striking parallel with what is currently happening in different societies in Africa. And that’s why we should all read books. You can start with this one here, Animal Farm by George Orwell. A lot is hidden from us in plain sight – in a book! Over time, we have lost sight of our ideals.
We have forgotten previous promises and seen how our leaders have changed. Like the pigs in the Animal Farm, they all became more like human beings over time —walking upright, carrying whips and wearing clothes.
They lost sight of their ideal (the seven principles of Animalism) and replaced it with the single principle of “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This nagging feeling has left me with little doubt about the fact that we live in a world where hypocrisy has become the norm.
Dishonesty among our leaders is more a rule than an exception and our entire educational leadership (development) agenda lacks integrity. We do not need to try too hard to notice these issues as they are so glaring. Just pick up the daily newspaper or turn on the television.
Or better still, just observe the behaviours of the majority of the leaders who have been appointed to steer our educational, health and political establishments. The credo “be an example, lead by example” has since ceased to exist.
So I am leaving you as a reader with two simple questions, what can we do as educators, healthcare and business leaders to relive the dream of Animal Farm’s ‘Old Major’? What specific actions should we be taking to rekindle a leadership conversation that would make a significant difference within our societies?
Or, we could let Squealer, who is Napoleon’s most treasured minister of propaganda, carry on with his mouthcraft (I just invented a second word in one day). Squealer is responsible for explaining and reframing events for the animals to maintain control.
He uses a variety of techniques to manipulate the animals, including: Appealing to fear. Squealer often uses the logical fallacy of appealing to fear, such as when he tells the animals, “You don’t want Mr. Jones to come back”.
Manipulating language: Squealer bends the meaning of words to get what he wants. For example, he convinces the hens that they should be happy about the pigs’ decision to stop rebelling.
Rewriting history: Squealer goes so far as to rewrite history, all by himself – quite a feat! Squealer is a very convincing orator who can turn “black into white”. When he’s really on message, his tail twitches vigorously.
He is
a devastating example of a propagandist who
uses people’s emotions to deceive them.
Quite a genius, Orwell uses Squealer to
illustrate the effectiveness of propaganda
and to expose Stalin’s propaganda and communism.
Poet and Educator
