Perhaps the most commonly referenced Prometheus-winning author over the past decade or two in sociopolitical discourse is George Orwell.
Yet, virtually all the commentary, editorial columns and essays mentioning Orwell tend to focus exclusively on Nineteen Eighty-Four, his classic dystopian novel inducted early on into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
Far fewer articles reference Orwell’s evocative fable Animal Farm – yet that deceptively simple animal fable explores profound themes and deeper truths that are just as relevant to today’s dismal authoritarian trends on the extreme Left and Right.
Thus, it’s heartening and refreshing (albeit sad, for its wider social implications) to see an informed and accurate discussion of Animal Farm, inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 2011, and its cautionary tale of radical coercive egalitarianism taken to a despotic extreme in “California watch,” a ruefully informed article in the Spectator magazine.
Written by Lloyd Billingsley, a policy fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif, the Spectator article skewers the hypocrisy of the powerful and wealthy elite and upper classes in California. Many (though not all) of this class feel relatively safe in their homes and offices in the better parts of town partly because they can afford to hire private security to protect them from crime, while many simultaneously turn a blind eye to the destructive consequences of their so-called “luxury beliefs” and corresponding “progressive” policies allow theft and other crimes to skyrocket, particularly harming or endangering the poor and middle classes.
Here’s how Billingsley’s column weaves in the sadly continuing relevance of Orwell:
“According to the California Globe, in organized retail theft Los Angeles ranks first, Oakland second and Sacramento seventh. The Sacramento city attorney’s effort to criminalize Target for reporting theft could be a first, and for the Globe’s Katy Grimes, “We have officially entered George Orwell’s 1984.’
“It is true that in California all the clocks seem to be striking 13, but the author’s Animal Farm could be more pertinent.
“Once the revolutionary animals take over the farm, they must decide what to do with the wild non-domestic creatures, so they agreed by an overwhelming majority that “rats are comrades.” In the view of “progressives,” criminals are victims of oppressive capitalist society, to be rectified by pro-criminal measures such as Proposition 47.
“So-called “property crime” affects the people who own the stolen property, and drives up prices for consumers, so “people crime” might be more accurate. There’s no question that it’s totally out of control in the Golden State.”
One further thought sparked by the article: Who would have imagined that the rise of dystopian literature in the 20th and 21st centuries would in some perverse ways become a model – rather than a cautionary tale of what not to do! – for some policies that perversely seem in some ways to be bringing about very real dystopias in California and elsewhere?
To appreciate the continued relevance of Orwell, read the Prometheus blog’s Appreciation essay-reviews of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
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On first glimpse of the title, my brain read it as “Orwell’s fable Animal Farm ruefully hailed as relevant to today’s sociopathic trends ”…
it fits. Brilliantly written, Michael. Thank you for saying what must be said