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Does no one read Animal Farm anymore?

 

When Theresa May announces that she wants now to build a “Sharing Society” while the plug has been pulled out of most  the institutions of our welfare state, while we are apparently so against people from abroad but auction off half our property to foreigners so our youngsters will never afford their own homes or get a council house …..  why aren’t we all screaming and demanding to be sectioned or pelting Downing Street with Tesco’s mince pies?

Have we forgotten about Orwell’s “Double Speak”? Does no one read Animal Farm anymore? Can’t we see that words and deeds aren’t in line?

Better dig out your old copy; better still, read The Corruption of Capitalism, by Guy Standing.

4 comments

  1. I have read Animal Farm – many years ago,

    The populace have become anaesthetised by materialism; opiated by the lust for I-tech; encouraged to dwell in virtual realities…

    It is a book that should be brought back into every school and college and studied as part of English and Sociology

    We live in an increasingly Id-based society, fed by the trough of capitalism.

    Comment by Glenys arthur on 08/01/2017 at 1:18 pm
  2. You are quite right, Glenys – thanks for the comment

    Comment by Nick Duffell on 08/01/2017 at 6:18 pm
  3. No Glenys. It’s an Ego dominated society. This is where Reich was right and Freud was wrong. Animal Farm is an interesting analogy, but its prediction isn’t inevitable. Civilisation and its Discontents is both suspect and speculative. Freud should have stuck to psychology rather than trying make social comment. The problem is that politicians generally are too interested in their own egos.

    Comment by Geoff Lamb on 08/01/2017 at 10:07 pm
  4. The reason we don’t attack Parliament and burn it down is fear. Many years ago when trouble first broke out on the streets of Athens a young Greek protester pulled the scarf off his face and took a break from throwing rocks to talk to a British reporter. He said: “Your government makes sure that you have just enough to lose. We’ve lost everything so we don’t have anything left to lose.” Very true. Whenever I go on a UK Uncut demo we ponder among ourselves as to whether we’re changing anything, and there’s usually a reluctance to criticise those Anarchists that are sometimes around us breaking windows (not our tactic although it’s certainly been the tactic of protest groups in the past, the Suffagettes for instance). But after all, who needs a criminal record and the consequent problems of finding a decent job ever again? The government knows it’s got us by the short and curlies and it holds out just enough carrot to lure us. Your chance to own your own home. Your chance of a crap job – as long as you work all hours and don’t go on strike. Oh yes, that Greek lad had our society well sussed.

    Comment by David Redshaw on 08/01/2017 at 10:45 pm




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