Animal Farm
I was recently reading George Orwell's classic "Animal Farm". An amazing read taking just 2 hours, I felt it
captured the quintessential challenge faced by all forms of human organization. When one starts out to achieve a
particular objective in a group, there are people at various levels of evolution / consciousness. As the group
moves towards the objective there is individual as well as collective learning. Along with memory it becomes
knowledge and wisdom, hence people shift from more of a follower role to that of a active participant, themselves
capable of impacting the outcomes. With this increased ability and capability, arises the need to utilize it,
experiance it in action, when no opportunities exist it leads to attempts at power grabs.
Hence how does one actually facilitate a human collective towards a state where it can naturally transform
itself?
Napoleon the Pig, in the book emerged as a natural leader. But just like he was incapable of the hard work that
was put in by the other animals, others were incapable of the intellectual effort of the pigs. But the question
remains that in a bounded collective, with no possible source of external energy, would it be possible to
discriminate between the animals based on their characteristics. If it was done, it would but lead to ultimate
death and doom for the collective.
Animal farm survived because it expanded. After Boxer the Horse died, some other horses were gotten in his place.
As long as there was replacement possible, this form of human organization can survive!
Our society can continue to function the way it is as long as there are enough resources to exploit. Keep the
workers at survival level and influence thoughts (this had been propounded by Freud and his American relative
already).
Today it seems as though this has always been and will always be the structure of human society. Could there
be another end for Animal Farm?
There have been a number of experiments Socialism, Communism, Capitalism, Intentional Communities, each has had
it's own success and failures, but it always seems that after a failure we always blame the structure or the
leader's become pigs themselves.
No one questions the seeds of distrust, hate and cheating that have been planted in our minds. It's because the
conceptualization exists that we bring them into reality. Even a perfectly moving system is always bound to
disintegrate because someone might believe otherwise. If the past was wiped and the future were a blank slate,
then such a scenario would not arise.
One would naturally move from one state to another state. The system would actually just be dealing with
externalities and internal adjustments be made automatically to achieve the objectives.
But i do not think that could happen.
For us now, so long down the line after Animal Farm, how do we change the outcomes, how do we change the game.
I think it would begin by beginning to Nip the unhealthy thoughts and feelings in the bud. No matter what the
justification or the reason.
Yet, not through collective sanctioning, but individual efforts and desires!