Animal Farm relevant today

Over the years one couldn't help thinking of, or being disturbed by, the political scene all over the world, more especially local politics that impacts our lives. Turning to the web I sought out the answer to the question on the relevance of Animal Farm today and wasn't surprised to find an answer. I have unashamedly reproduced it on my blog since I know I couldn't have done as good a job as Don Mac Auley in the Sunday Business Post in 2007. I also hope that those who have not read this satirical novel will perhaps do so.It doesn't need much imagination to see how this story fits our political conditions at all levels.

Sunday Business Post

Animal farm: as relevant today as it was back then
Sunday, May 20, 2007 - By Don Mac Auley
The last time I opened George Orwell’s Animal Farm, according to the inscription inside the cover, I was a fourth year high school student.

Compared to the doorstops we’d previously studied in English class, it appeared a much easier read. Our teacher said that after we read it, nothing would ever be the same again.

A moral tale about the corruption of power, it opened my eyes to the world where ‘‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’’. As Spanish and Irish people head to the polls, it strikes me that his would be a better read than any of the political manifestos, for the politicians and the public alike.

Spain’s electorate goes to the polls in the municipal elections on May 27.Voting will establish the composition of local and provincial councils, or Diputacions.

Although these have limited powers, the result is a good indicator of national trends and usually reflects support for the various political parties.

The two main parties have already locked horns. The Olive Press, our local newspaper in English, last week reported illegal electioneering and mass vote-rigging.

Here in Spain, the politicians are asking difficult questions and accusing each other of fraud and corruption.

In Ireland, the Taoiseach’s financial irregularities beg scant comment from his political rivals, but you get the feeling running for election in Spain would be less comfortable for Bertie.

Reeling from the boost in his popularity after ‘Bertiegate’ last autumn, the alternate kings are ever so quiet.

Rabitte and Kenny’s acquiescence on the issue may be cute electioneering, but it says little for their characters. Somewhere Edmund Burke is quietly turning in his grave.

When I questioned Bertie followers back home about what effect these revelations have had on opinion, I often hear that redundant response, ‘‘Ah, sure ’tis better the divil you know’’. But you don’t know and probably will never know.

The sudden growth of the electoral register in our council seems a minor scandal next to Bertie’s wranglings but in the Spanish mountains, as elsewhere, politicians are hungry to cling to power.

In Lanjaron, famous for its spring water, the socialist candidate for mayor has accused the incumbent of suspicious registrations of voters who are ‘‘friends of the mayor or his family and do not even live in the town’’.

The mayor has denied any wrongdoing and declared that, ‘‘if the Junta Electoral wants to investigate, let them’’.

And we are not alone. Over 230 town halls and individuals in Spain are suspected of census fraud. In Melilla, the Partido Popular chief of elections is being investigated after allegedly trying to make 1,000 copies of a postal vote document. While in a village in Salamanca, it was discovered that nine people were registered as living in a chicken shed.

This desire for, and abuse of, power were also present in Animal Farm. Demonstrating how a revolution turned full circle as the oppressed become the oppressors, it echoes Lord Acton’s saying: ‘‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’’.

Having rid themselves of the cruel Mr Jones, the animals relish new freedoms but in their complacency they were soon subjugated by the pigs under lead pig Napoleon. At first, they took the apples and milk and then set about changing the commandments of the rebellion until eventually they created a greater tyranny than the previous regime.

With the terror of the dogs and the propaganda of Squealer, Napoleon forced the animals to forget the past as history is altered, and they ultimately lose control of their present and future. More than 20 years later, I can still envisage the final scene. The pigs are standing upright now, carrying whips, wearing clothes and entertaining the local human farmers. Sharing beer, they congratulate each other on their commercial success and a game of cards starts up all of which is against the rules of the animal revolution.

Caught cheating, a loud argument attracts the other animals to the window and peering in, to their horror, they are unable to discriminate between the pigs and the humans.

Today, in my mind’s eye, I see the same scene not with pigs but unfamiliar businessmen.

Visit www.changinglanes.es for Irish dentist Don Mac Auley’s experience of trading Celtic tiger Ireland for a year in the Spanish mountains


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