Boundaries of the Barnyard: The Fallacy of Truth for Manipulation and Power
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the concept of “truth” built by those in charge is in fact meaningless to the beneficial progress of society and human nature. Instead, it is the concrete excuse to keep the masses in place and to provide momentum on the wheel of absolute power to those who claim divine right. In Animal Farm, Orwell illustrates that ideas such as the glorification of history, the power of education and the stability of surveillance do not provide for a successful mode of living for the masses; instead these concepts at the hands of a governing system restrict the inherent freedoms of the human spirit and take Nietzchean ideals as an excuse to impose absolute power …show more content…
The pigs on the farm, known to all as the “cleverest of the animals” (25) either by design or by relation to Old Major and his statutes of Animalism, are the ones who take the incentive to educate themselves and others with the most basic literary education. Through these institutions that the pigs create, they observe the different levels of instruction that the other animals retain and place them in certain necessary positions in society to work under the most educated classes. Even right after the Rebellion the pigs are described as not doing any of the actual farm work, but instead they “supervise” the other animals when the humans are retracted from the bigger picture. They are the ceremonial figureheads of Animal Farm initiating new ideas and enforcing policies on the others while they take advantage of the animals’ ignorance to hold ultimate power for themselves, exercising powers such as making amendments to the Seven Commandments of Animalism and taking accepting that “truth” can be altered to fit their own
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the concept of “truth” built by those in charge is in fact meaningless to the beneficial progress of society and human nature. Instead, it is the concrete excuse to keep the masses in place and to provide momentum on the wheel of absolute power to those who claim divine right. In Animal Farm, Orwell illustrates that ideas such as the glorification of history, the power of education and the stability of surveillance do not provide for a successful mode of living for the masses; instead these concepts at the hands of a governing system restrict the inherent freedoms of the human spirit and take Nietzchean ideals as an excuse to impose absolute power …show more content…
The pigs on the farm, known to all as the “cleverest of the animals” (25) either by design or by relation to Old Major and his statutes of Animalism, are the ones who take the incentive to educate themselves and others with the most basic literary education. Through these institutions that the pigs create, they observe the different levels of instruction that the other animals retain and place them in certain necessary positions in society to work under the most educated classes. Even right after the Rebellion the pigs are described as not doing any of the actual farm work, but instead they “supervise” the other animals when the humans are retracted from the bigger picture. They are the ceremonial figureheads of Animal Farm initiating new ideas and enforcing policies on the others while they take advantage of the animals’ ignorance to hold ultimate power for themselves, exercising powers such as making amendments to the Seven Commandments of Animalism and taking accepting that “truth” can be altered to fit their own