Animal Farm - George Orwell

The sequel, if it is ever written, would be called Factory Farm. Mutant, drug pumped animals break out of their cramped cages. But this time instead of letting Jones flee, they torture him as revenge. I do find it a little coincidental that this topic should follow immediately from my last post. I am hesitant to write again about animal rights - about Animalism - it seems, interestingly, to be a sensitive issue for many people. But there's far too much written about the political allegories of Animal Farm.

In the preface of a 1947 Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm, Orwell wrote about where the idea came from

"...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat."

Exploitation is precisely the word for the modern day relationship between humans and farm animals. There is simply no comparison between the exploitation on the Manor Farm and a modern day factory farm (which comprise the absoltute majority of all farms in America today). It is interesting that back in 1947 Orwell captures the essence, in Old Major's speech, of the argument animal rights activists extol. This was before the Oxford Group, Singer, or Spira and perhaps shows that just little thought on the subject is needed to arrive at a similar conclusion.

If animals could speak they would say "Four legs good, two legs bad!".