What can we learn from Animal Farm?

Whenever most of us think about the political system of any modern nation, we tend to think about either the socialistic or capitalistic forms of the government. We usually have strong opinions on topics like equality, environment, cultures, free market, etc. If we think about these topics, all of them make sense in some way or other, it’s only when we put them together, the clash of the ideologies will start to happen.

The Animal Farm is based on the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the events that followed in the Soviet Union. However, it would be wrong to relate the book only to the communist political system as done by various analysts. It can be related to any form of government in the world be it communist, socialist, capitalist, etc.

A political system is said to be leaning left whenever it thrives to progress towards equality within the society. Equality can be achieved either based on the social structure, economic structure, or any other possible classification within the society. Whenever we try to achieve extreme equality between such classes, it will require a complicated bureaucracy to maintain it. This system can be sustained as long as the bureaucrats within the system have limited power and can be checked by some authority, which further needs to be checked by someone else. If any level of the bureaucracy go unchecked and achieve extreme power, it will result in the corruption of the whole system.

We had already witnessed this left-leaning structure in some form or the other in the Soviet Union (Joseph Stalin’s Era) & China (Mao Zedong’s Era) in the past which resulted in the total deaths of approximately 1 billion. We should pause for a moment and think about it, 1 billion deaths in the name of equality.

A political system is said to be leaning right whenever it thrives to conserve the existing order within the society. Order can be conserved within the society based on social structure, religious structure, economic structure, etc. Ideally, this structure tries to follow the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest and assumes that the order is the result of the same. When we try to conserve the order to a great extent, it will also require a complicated bureaucracy to maintain it. This system can be sustained as long as the bureaucracy allows fair competition within the society following the survival of the fittest theory. If the bureaucracy goes unchecked to gain influence for a specific class and thus gaining extreme power, it will result in the corruption of the whole system.

We had already witnessed this right-leaning structure in Germany (Adolf Hitler’s Era) when he tried to maintain the social and religious structure of the society by suppressing the Jews which ultimately led to World War 2 which resulted in the deaths of approximately 75 million. We should again pause for a moment and think about it, 75 million deaths in the name of preserving the order.

According to the dictionary, Equilibrium is a condition in which all acting influences are canceled by others, resulting in a stable or balanced system. The left and right political system should work together to achieve equality within the society without drastically affecting the existing order. The bureaucracy required to maintain this type of structure can be kept in check by both the political systems.

This is the case with most democracies in the modern world, but the various checks required to maintain such systems like media, independent institutions, judicial courts, etc. should maintain their autonomous state.

There can be different kinds of ideologies, different types of beliefs, within a nation or society, but none of them should be allowed to gain enormous power that may go unchecked which exactly happened in Animal Farm. This book tells us that none of the political systems is perfect and is always prone to corruption. It’s not the nature of the political system, but it’s the nature of humans that desires a little more than required and thus destroying the equilibrium. This book reflects the true nature of humans throughout history.

I am not a political expert but an avid follower of politics and loves to talk about it. I am a simple person trying to achieve his personal equilibrium and sharing his thoughts on random stuff. If you like what you just read, you can clap for this article. If you think it’s worth sharing, you can share it with your friends. If you don’t like what you just read, please consider leaving your response.

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