A book made me think (and about time)

No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. 

George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 10

This is not a dissection nor a review of the work Animal Farm.  The world has smart people who can write  better reviews than me. This is about the relevance of Orwell's writing in today's world. This is about how 100 pages written six decades ago reminded me of the world I live in, how a world changed from an idea of Utopia to a dystopia , how freedom is just an idea and  how our lives are driven by lies.

****** Spoiler Alert ******

There are similarities everywhere, alas, to my country and to us, its people. In the story, the animals "defeated" Mr.Jones, the farm owner, to take control of the farm. From then on the animals  fall prey to the illusion of freedom created by the pigs who are the "brains"  behind running the farm. The pigs created slaves out of the animals. Truth was but lies and lies were still lies. They erased all that remained of the truth from history. They made the animals believe that they had led a worse life before the takeover.   

Thinking about this, is India the same India that the people who fought for our freedom envisioned? Is the current power in our Country better than the British Reign? Are we just puppets with Voting power?

At one point Napoleon (one of the pig leaders) opposes Snowball(another pig leader). Snowball wants to build a windmill but Napoleon is against the idea. Napoleon plots against Snowball,drives him out of the farm and becomes the Leader of the animals. After some time in his own leadership, he proposes to build a windmill. 

I couldn't help but smile when I read this. It had a haunting similarity to the communist government in Kerala (Orwell himself has written Animal Farm considering a communist party. This is evident by the animals calling each other comrades. However I do not know what led him to pick that ideology.). Even though I am a staunch believer in the original Idea of Socialism, (which  the animals at the farm wanted when the revolution started), the whole idea has become twisted in time. Just like Napoleon, the communist government in Kerala never really accepted the idea of computerization. In time  they  embraced it with much pomp and show.

Another bunch of guys who you see around in every political scenario are the Sheep. The people who blindly believe the lies fed to them and bleat it out without taking a moment to think about it. We see them all the day, but don't realize it, do we?   

There are yet many things that hold true today. Contamination of known truth, contriving new meaning for the existing rules, greed, the ecstasy of luxury and much more that I find myself and people around me doing. May be consciously, maybe not.

I would suggest the book. Take an evening, read through, think through. You might think twice the next time you come across  a sleazy bastard using us to his advantage. Maybe it will help us some time, this realization.

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.

 George Orwell, Animal Farm