Animal Farm and The First Presidential Debate, Napoleon v. Snowball

Well…

Last night I attended the Davidson County Democratic Watch Party for the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

I was inspired to attend this watch party due to my recent reading of Animal Farm, and I told every person who I chatted with at the party that Animal Farm was the reason why I was there. After the debate I was chatting with Aaron, from Cincinnati, Ohio, who had spent 30 years in Miami and was now here in Nashville, and I mentioned to him as we were talking, “I’m here because I read Animal Farm. Have you read it?” And he said, quoting the book, “Sure. ‘All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.'” Later, reflecting on our conversation and the night in general, I remembered that, and then it made sense why we had clicked so well. I had interesting discussions with Aaron, with Dylan, with a Canadian from Alberta, who said that Alberta was like the Texas of Canada, conservative, oil country and cattle raising. All three of these guys impressed me with their political knowledge, and it was interesting to hear their ideas and their take on things.

It can be hard to talk about politics. Many people are immediately set on edge, triggered, when they hear the now loaded words Democrat or Republican. Democrats are triggered by the word Republican, and Republicans are triggered by the word Democrat. I don’t want to get wrapped up in factionalism, tribalism, whatever you want to call it. I want to stay out. So even though I was at a Democratic convention, I really don’t even like saying that, and I wouldn’t like to say that I am a Democrat, because people would then immediately shut their ears, or nearly do so, regarding everything I say now as tainted and suspicious, or, conversely, if a Democrat, they would regard everything I’m saying as correct and true, as long as it is pro-Democrat. I know not everybody has this aversion to the party labels, but many do. It’s hard not to. And it’s hard not to get wrapped up in fervor for your party. So when I was at this event, and they did a little bit of rah-rahing, you know, chanting, “4 more years!!” and “Democrats, are you fired up!!!” I didn’t shout too loudly. I would say just enough that was socially acceptable, because come on, if you go to an event and someone says, “Are y’all fired up!!!” And you just stare in silence, that’s not right. Haha. But this was the first political event I’ve ever attended, actually, even though I have been watching and observing, taking notes from the sidelines, so I really was just here to see what people were thinking, see what was going on, and I was interested in the debate and what the talking points would be. I haven’t been very active in reading the news and don’t know about many of the issues in depth, but I know what they are. And it was a good way to see via the questions asked, what were the real major issues facing American society today.

The main reason why I attended this debate party event was because I was motivated by Animal Farm, but I know I was also hoping to meet some like-minded and interesting people, and hopefully make some new friends. And I think that’s something to remember, as one woman mentioned to me at the event, that she was just there because “it’s better than watching it at home alone.” Like going to church, we partially are motivated to attend these events, or identify with a group just because we want to belong somewhere, and be with people. Many people seek out a group not because they care about whatever cause or ideology the group supports. They simply want to be a part of a group. The desire to belong to a group is an enormously motivating desire in pretty much everyone’s life.

So, with Animal Farm fresh in my mind, I watched our history being written and contemplated the state of American politics today. I’ll try and share some of the thoughts I had about it all.

There was a lot of laughter and smiles at that party. A lot of ridiculing Trump, a lot of fun banter, drinks, mingling, chatting. A woman next to me told me she was playing bingo, and showed me a bingo card, that had phrases such as “drug test” and “34 counts” on it. People were enjoying themselves, and I did enjoy myself too, but on the whole, I wasn’t laughing. I was quite stressed out and concerned.

The demonization of the enemy. The destruction and removal of disloyal party members. The scapegoating and denigration of a minority group. The propogation of blatant falsehoods, and the denial of truth. Revising history, gaslighting. Bullying, outright hostility. Affinity, respect for other authoritarians. Willingness to use force to achieve political goals. Desire to persecute political opponents. Legal trouble. Denouncing of the free press. Proficient use and weaponization of new media technology. Using fear and anger to incense passions and win followers. Attempted overthrow of the government.

Sound like anybody you know?

Anybody, perhaps a few people throughout history who were responsible for the murder and destruction of millions?

Or somebody who is currently running for his second term in office as president of the United States of America?

That’s why I wasn’t laughing.

In Animal Farm, Napoleon doesn’t do much of the talking. Napoleon just issues the decrees, commands. When he talks, he generally says, “This is what we’re doing now,” or “It’s all Snowball’s fault!!!” (Snowball discussion in next paragraph.) His talker, who is something like the media, is Squealer. Squealer manipulates, lies, deflects, deceives, bends, and as a last resort, uses emotional appeals, preying upon fears, to persuade the other animals to support Napoleon’s policies, or to dupe them into thinking they are for the benefit of all of the animals on the farm. He would say, “But, surely you don’t want Mr. Jones to come back, do you?” And that would invoke fear and terror into every animal, as they of course knew that they didn’t want Mr. Jones (the farmer) to come back, and they would then agree that things were at least better with Napoleon. Trump is able to be a Squealer for himself. He has his Squealers too, but Trump the man himself can do the Squealer work. Just from his language last night, I heard both Squealer and Napoleon. For example, throughout the debate I can’t count how many times he repeated that people were coming over the border, were raping, killing, innocent Americans, flooding the border and killing our people. Criminals, bringing over drugs, bringing crime, pouring across the border, flooding across the border, the border, the border, the border. Raping, killing. Like Squealer, Trump is creative, creative and stubborn, and demonstrated it in this debate with his ability to twist the narrative, turn any question on its head, and find or force a way to get back his main points of persuation, and one of his strongest lines, that he repeatedly went back to, was the border, and the immigrants. He used strong and negative language frequently, such as the word “destruction”, mentioning the destruction of cities “like Minneapolis, and.. many other cities” (his words) or the destruction of the country, painting images of cities burning, a country on fire, full of drugs and murderers. Why does he do this? Whether true or not, it can be an effective line, because it plays to fear. At least it works well in Animal Farm. Invoking fear is exactly what Squealer does, generally as a last resort, when his other persuasive tactics have failed to convince the animals. Fear is a powerful motivator, anger is a powerful motivator, and a powerful persuader for the animals. And fear, anger, and anxiety all have a place in the amygdala, one of the most primitive parts of the human brain. So these lines, these images have the power to hit deep, to activate emotions. In Animal Farm, Squealer uses Mr. Jones, and the idea of Mr. Jones coming back to run the farm, as his fear-invoking line. “But, surely you don’t want Mr. Jones to come back, do you?” And in the debate, Trump’s fear-invoking line was about the border, and about illegal immigrants. If a line from Animal Farm, maybe it would look something like this. “But, surely you don’t want an open border, do you?” (Implying that Biden does, and that if did have this, we would have murderers, thieves, and drug-dealers flooding into the country.)

It would make sense then that Trump would not want to support any progress that the Biden administration would take to strengthen border security, even if it was in the best interest of the country. And it does seem that he acted to get a bipartisan border bill from getting passed, a bill so bipartisan that even Mitch McConnell supported it. Even Mitch McConnell!! But if that bill passed, Biden would be able to point to it and say, this is what we’ve done. Not as good for Trump. It would make sense that Trump would want to kill the bill, to give him ammo in this election. And we did see him use that ammo last night, firing away, probably to great effect, over and over and over.

Along with using Mr. Jones as a way to invoke fear in the animals, Napoleon and Squealer both also use Snowball, Napoleon’s political opponent before Napoleon ousted him with force, as a target for the animals’ discontent, anger, and as a scapegoat for the failings on the farm. By the end of the novel, there was nothing so ludicrous that they couldn’t blame Snowball for it. They blamed Snowball for having weeds among the crops, saying that he must have mixed in unwanted seed with the good seed, they blamed Snowball for somehow felling an entire windmill. Anything and everything is attributed to Snowball, and Squealer and Napoleon continually assault Snowball’s reputation and standing until it couldn’t possibly be any lower in the minds of most of the animals on the farm.

Trump uses Biden in the exact same way. Biden is Trump’s Snowball. “You’re ruining this country.” “You are the worst president in the history of the country.” Inflation is Biden’s fault. The border is Biden’s fault. Russian’s invasion of Ukraine is Biden’s fault. China is taking advantage of us because of Biden. Everything is Biden’s fault. Everything is Snowball’s fault. There is a simple source of your frustration, your anger, your ire, and it’s Joe Biden. Biden is responsible for all of it. The windmill that Snowball “destroyed” came down in a storm, because it the walls were too thin. It wasn’t built correctly. This was actually Napoleon’s fault, as Snowball was an engineer, and had designed all plans for the windmill, but by this point Snowball had been chased off and was unable to oversee the construction of the windmill. Napoleon was unable to build it properly, but he blamed Snowball for the fall of the windmill, and said that Snowball had come in the night and taken it down as an act of revenge. Trump even used this line too, in the debate last night. He suggested that Biden had undone some of his policies out of revenge. His words were, “I don’t know why he did it, I think he did it just because I approved them.” Whatever Napoleon says about Snowball, the animals believe, of course, most of them right away, and those that aren’t, after some persuation by Squealer. It’s actually amazing how easily I seem to be able to interchange Trump with Napoleon and Squealer, and Biden with Snowball, here.

What also bothered me was Trump’s language regarding Ukraine, our ally, and the only country right now who is holding back a wave of Russian aggression. They are fighting and dying to keep an authoritarian regime from expanding in power. Supporting freedom domestically and throughout the world is exactly what America is all about, if we profess to be about freedom. Preventing the world from sliding into corrupt, strongman police states, as Russia is, as China has become, as North Korea is. Trump, in front of millions, made demoralizing and negative comments about a country that is so bravely and effectively defying a side that had many advantages, in numbers of troops, in experience, in weapons and technology, and is lead by a war criminal. A country that is a US ally. To the world, Trump claimed that Ukraine was losing, Ukrainians were dying, that we were wasting money in support of them. And he claimed that he would have the war over before he was even the president. If Trump had his way, the war would have been over a long time ago, because Ukraine wouldn’t have gotten a dollar from the US. He was impeached for attempting to change the narritive on election interference, that it was Ukraine instead of Russia, and for using money that had been approved by the Senate as leverage. He was then impeached for the insurrection, impeached twice, if you will recall. Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, you should be for freedom. That’s what we’re all about here, isn’t it? Russia is not exactly a free country. Go to Russian and stand on a corner and hold up a sign that says “Down with Putin.” Not even that, hold up a sign that says, “Putin is not a very nice guy.” “Putin farts in his sleep.” How long will you be able to stand there for? Go ahead and try that, let me know how it goes for you. Saying that our ally, a country fighting for democracy, was losing, which is completely not even true in any way, as they have already won, having fought so hard and cost Russia so much, those should have been painful and angering words for every American. For me, but hey, at least there was somebody out there who was quite happy to hear them. (Vladimir Putin.)

As I found when reading Animal Farm, and what I find now, is how easy it is to draw parallels between what happens in the story, and what is happening now. And watching the debate last night, we can easily map Squealer and Napoleon’s words and actions to those of Donald Trump’s, Napoleon, the authoritarian/totalitarian ruler of Animal Farm.

Watching this debate, reflecting on the words of Animal Farm, making these comparisons, has me squirming.

Something else that was news to me, I found out last night – Trumps wants to have a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. A mass deportation of immigrants, a group of people who Trump considers to be to blame for the apparent destruction of our country. Hmm.. a mass deportation you say? Is that something like having an immigration force, going door to door, looking up people in lists, hunting people down? Rounding people up, putting people in camps, shipping them away to somewhere? Taking people, neighbors, friends, co-workers away from their families, from their children, from their jobs? How about before we round them up, we mark them in some way, maybe we give them little yellow stars, so that we can easily identify them, those who are responsible for the destruction of the country? And you know what, this is all reminding me of something… Yes, I think this has been done before, to great success. I remember hearing about it once, in school or somewhere. And if I remember correctly, it really worked out well for everybody, that one time when a minority group was blamed for everything, rounded up, shipped off, put into camps, taken care of. I mean, it wasn’t really good for the minorities of course, but hey, they shouldn’t have done all those bad things! And our country will be so much better without them! I can totally get behind that, we should do that for ourselves, here in America.

Between Animal Farm and current American politics, there are more parallels to be drawn. The bleating sheep (meaninglessly spewing pro-party rhetoric), Napoleon’s dogs (the Proud Boys, who Trump infamously told to “stand back and stand by”, and what do you say to your dog? Stand down.), sacrificing Boxer before retirement (killing social security, which would probably happen when Trump eliminates the payroll tax, which he apparently intends to do). Increased hardship and suffering for all via blundering policies (Napoleon’s windmill, as the animals had to work twice as hard to try and rebuild it after it had fallen, Trump’s 10% tariff on all domestic imports, Trump’s handling of the pandemic, Trump killing the payroll tax, Trump deporting 5% of our economy.)

Benjamin The Donkey

Last night I read a story called Yugao, from my Anthology of Japanese Literature. Yugao was a chapter of the great Japanese masterpiece called Genji Monogatari, which is usually (always?) translated into English as The Tale of Genji. It is considered to be Japan’s greatest work of literature, and it was written all the way back in the 11th century. Think about that, people. That’s 1000 years ago. 1000 years ago, and it slaps. And I was thinking, are there any books that we still read in Western literature that are that old? I thought of The Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare stuff, but I don’t actually know when they were written. I’m going to guess 15th century. Shall we Google it? (Shakespeare, 16th century, The Canterbury Tales end of 14th century.) Don Quixote, another old Western classic, 16th century. We have Beowulf, and Beowulf is older, between 600-1000 CE. From what I just read last night in The Tale of Genji, Beowulf is really primitive in comparison. Beowulf also slaps though.

All I really wanted to say here is that Yugao was riveting and compelling, and that maybe we should be including The Tale of Genji on our lists of greatest works of literature, and I want to read the whole book.

I dismantled more Chinese Privet this morning. I needed something to get me activated, give me some enthusiasm. Seek, and ye shall find. Every time I look, I find more of it in my yard. I now have an enormous pile of trunks and branches in the driveway.

Last night I read that snippet of The Tale of Genji, but a few nights ago I read Animal Farm. You know, in high school I believe I really did say, in my English class, when we were discussing the book, or at least I definitely thought this, because it has now been ringing in my ears, I remember thinking, “Maybe this book doesn’t have a political message. Maybe there is no symbolism. Maybe he just wanted to write about animals.” Well, high school me was not very smart. At least, I didn’t know much about the world and the machinations and movements of societies. I also remember that I thought Old Man and The Sea was boring, and could not understand how this was a celebrated work of literature. I’ve also recently read that, and of course just like with Animal Farm, feel very differently about it now, but that’s how it goes. We are not always ready for what the books have to tell us, and especially I’m sure when the books are about life, and living, and you’re young and still don’t know much about that. But I read Animal Farm, after attempting again like every single night for the last month, it feels like, to try and go to sleep before midnight, and after attempting this and again laying in bed with my mind whirring, fully awake, for an hour, I opened it up, and I read it all the way through. I have gotten into the habit of testing out books, because I have picked up so many classics from an amazing used goods store here in Nashville called MacKays’s, and when I’m looking for something to read I will just grab one that I have laying around and start reading, and if it grabs me I’ll keep reading, and if not I’ll put it down and plan to come back to it when I’m ready for it. So I just picked up Animal Farm to take a little looksie, and then I didn’t put it back down until I was done. This little book that I had thougth really nothing of in high school, hit me harder this time around.

The thing about Animal Farm is that, after I was done with it, I felt very disturbed. I was disturbed, I can say, because unfortunately, it was way, way too easy to draw parallels between what happened on that farm (I mean some countries right now are fully fledged Napoleon farms, North Korea, China, Russia), and what’s happening in many countries around the world, but most unfortunately, with what’s happening here in America. In such plain and simple language, Orwell shows exactly how a population is tricked or cowed into loyalty to a ruler, the steps by which that ruler is able to establish complete control, and how it ultimately descends into conditions that are just as bad if not worse than any the animals on the farm had experienced before their revolution, in hopes of achieving a more equal and fair society. All of the mechanisms, subtle and not so subtle, the gradual degrees in which the population is subjugated, duped, placated, or cowed, until they are completely subservient to the regime, and the single ruler above all.

In the days since reading it, there’s been one character who’s stayed with me, who I’ve been thinking about, and that’s Benjamin, the donkey. Benjamin is the character that really got to me, because Benjamin is exactly who I don’t want to be. Most of the animals on the farm can’t quite grasp what’s happening, the meaning of the events that are taking place, the inevitable outcomes of decisions that are being made. They may not understand at all, or they may have some reservations about changes that they can’t quite express, but their concerns are either relieved by Squealer’s sweet, compelling, and manipulative words, or they are forced into silence by Napoleon’s dogs, or they are steamrolled by the sheep, and never given the chance for public discourse. Some of the animals eventually draw lines in the sand, when pushed too far, but at that point Napoleon (the pig, ruler) has solidified his power, and has the military/police force at his command (in the form of dogs that he bred for the role), and so he can deal with them via force. A few of the other pigs are aware, and dissent, and as they are threats, are killed. Benjamin doesn’t object, doesn’t dissent, but Benjamin is aware. He knows what’s up. Benjamin is old, Benjamin is smart, Benjamin has been around for a long time, and Benjamin is cynical. His expectations are low, and he is not passionate. So, Benjamin is something like an outsider, politically, or inert. He’s not involved, does not lean one way or the other, does not offer any opinions, does not rock the boat. Benjamin is not ignorant, however – he is intelligent, he sees, he understands. He simply chooses passivity. Benjamin cares about one thing, he has no allegance to anything other than his friend, the workhorse, Boxer, and so the only time we see Benjamin show any real emotion or move to action is when Boxer is being taken to his death. Benjamin is so exasperated by the other animals’ stupidity, that they can’t understand that Boxer is not really being taken to the vet, but instead has been sold to the “knacker” to become glue, and so upset that he’s losing Boxer, that he actually does something, and shouts at the all, hey, you dumbasses, that cart says “horse killer” on it, he’s not going to the vet!!!!!! And of course they all try to save Boxer then and fail, and Benjamin goes back to being a passive bystander, now without his best friend, Boxer.

This is why Benjamin has stuck with me. Benjamin is passive, and it costs him his best friend. It probably costs him his happiness too. He’s cynical, and sad. And even though he tries to keep out of affairs and makes no waves, he cannot get out unscathed. The hens die, some of them, because they refuse to lay more eggs for the regime. Their defiance costs them their lives. The pigs die, some of them, because they voice their dissent at the meetings. Benjamin doesn’t die, because he doesn’t dissent – but he still suffers, and he suffers doubly because he loses Boxer, and because he has to live with a cynical, hopeless worldview to justify living his life of inaction.

That begs the question – would you rather resist, risking death for the cause, or would you rather comply, and live (possibly, because Boxer complied, and still he died for it), and suffer? I don’t think that Benjamin ever felt compelled to resist, though, because Benjamin didn’t care one way or the other. I think Benjamin did not really have a belief that things could be any better, as he says, which actually can be perfectly summed up by the words of a cynical friend of mine, “Life sucks, then you die.” Benjamin had no reason to act, because he didn’t think it would matter, whether Napoleon was the ruler, whether a human was the ruler, or whether Snowball, who could have potentially have been a much better ruler for their new society, was the ruler. In Benjamin’s eyes none of it mattered, because life would still suck, life would still be hard, that that was just how life was.

There were other politically inactive, politically indifferent characters, but they weren’t as aware as Benjamin. Benjamin was indifferent, inactive due to his cynicism. Moses, the raven, also didn’t care who ruled the farm, but that was because he had Sugarcandy Mountain. He was a problem for the pigs in the beginning, because while they were trying to fill the other animals’ heads with ideas about their political systems and designs for the society (which they called, Animalism), Moses was out here telling everyone about Sugarcandy Mountain, and how great Sugarcandy Mountain was, this magical place that you went when you died, and got all the sugar you ever wanted. Moses had religion. He was not interested in the movements of the animals or their society. He was outside of it. (Or, possibly, Moses himself didn’t believe in Sugarcandy Mountain, but both governments, Mr. Jones’s and Napoleon’s found his preaching useful, and so they would treat him well.) Moses was useful to Napoleon later though, I think, when things had gotten so bad that he couldn’t give them much else to work for in terms of hope, so if they couldn’t believe in a good life on the farm anymore, they could at least believe in Sugarcandy Mountain. There was the cat, who just didn’t care about anything at all, (classic cat stereotype) and there was Mollie, the white mare, who just wanted to eat sugar and have ribbons in her hair. She wanted an easy life. She didn’t care about politics, but she liked the way she was treated by Mr. Jones, because she got sugar and ribbons, so for her the previous order was just fine, and in the new one she couldn’t have her sugar and ribbons, so she went to another farm where she could.

I don’t want to be a Benjamin.