August 26, 2014
by Brian4Liberty
(RPF) - Many people have pondered what has happened in American politics in recent years. The establishment Progressives, Socialists and Marxists have come to resemble crony corporatists. The US Chamber of Commerce and various big business interests work together with the left on Obamacare and on increasing immigration during a time of high unemployment and recession. The neo-conservatives and progressive interventionists have seemingly merged on foreign policy, with little difference remaining between Hillary Clinton and John McCain. What is going on?
It may seem as though some unique and striking changes have been occurring, but that is not the case. What has happened is that we have reached the final chapter of Animal Farm by George Orwell. This is more of a well-known progression rather than an unheard of development. A review of that final chapter paints a picture that could be a snapshot of America today. The last paragraph of the book sums it up well. The mundane animals of the farm are looking through a window at the private dining room of their leader, the pig Napoleon:
- "Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. 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."
Today, we have President Obama, meeting in backrooms with the US Chamber of Commerce and big corporate interests, planning which executive actions will be taken to increase the flow of cheap labor. It is almost surprising that Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio are not in attendance. Is it possible to distinguish which is which?
Uniting under the pro-war banner
In the 2016 Presidential contest, Hillary Clinton is the leading pro-aggression war hawk running for President in either party. If she were to debate the inevitable neo-conservative backed candidates in the GOP, what could they disagree about? No doubt there would be some meaningless hair-splitting to exaggerate, but once again, would it be possible to tell them apart?
The striking similarities to Animal Farm do not stop there. Orwell was prescient in his vision of the future, and this quote encompasses more than one example:
- "Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer–except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs. Perhaps this was partly because there were so many pigs and so many dogs. It was not that these creatures did not work, after their fashion. There was, as Squealer was never tired of explaining, endless work in the supervision and organisation of the farm."
Destruction of the Middle Class
That brings to mind perhaps the most damaging development of the past decade or more, which has been the destruction of the middle-class. And those on both the left and right have noticed the glaring and growing gulch between "the haves and the have nots". But as Orwell observed, there is "endless work in the supervision and organisation of the farm."
The leviathan of government continues to expand. Quite often, the only hope of a decent wage for an American is working for the government or for a government contractor. Even the Unions have conceded, and have taken a seat at Napoleon's table, focusing more on being the Human Resources department for government employees.
If one were to listen to the nightly news, you might hear a statistic on employment or economic growth that provides some hope. Once again, official statistics were also a standard fixture on the Animal Farm:
- "There was nothing with which they could compare their present lives: they had nothing to go upon except Squealer's lists of figures, which invariably demonstrated that everything was getting better and better."
Ferguson and Police militarization
In the realm of current events, another similarity can be found in the "supervision" and dogs aspect of Orwell's Farm. Recent events in Ferguson, Missouri have highlighted a certain unease in the air about the militarization of the Police in America. We now have domestic Police that resemble an invading army in terms of equipment and tactics. Is it easy to tell the difference between a middle of the night SWAT raid in America, and house searches by the military in Iraq or Afghanistan?
"We have rights in America!" is often heard in opposition to the growing police state in America. People tend to only think about rights when police take excessive action, when a person is subjected to TSA groping and naked scanning, or all of their personal information is captured by the NSA. For the most part, the resulting discussion is not about natural rights, or even the subset of rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights. It's just a vague reference to some general "American" rights, rights that many have a hard time specifically recalling.
Once again, Orwell has one more prediction for those who want to reference their rights as defined by law. Forget about all of those archaic rights, or the more popular "human rights" that are in vogue today. The new Constitution has been written, and whether by actual amendment, or more likely via steady erosion of the current Bill of Rights, Orwell has predicted your new law:
- "There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS."
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