{"id":8047,"date":"2024-09-27T00:01:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T05:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=8047"},"modified":"2024-08-22T23:36:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T04:36:18","slug":"orwells-fable-animal-farm-ruefully-hailed-as-relevant-to-todays-sociopolitical-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/orwells-fable-animal-farm-ruefully-hailed-as-relevant-to-todays-sociopolitical-trends\/","title":{"rendered":"Orwell\u2019s fable Animal Farm ruefully hailed as relevant to today\u2019s sociopolitical trends\u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

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George Orwell. (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps the most commonly referenced Prometheus-winning author over the past decade or two in sociopolitical discourse is George Orwell.<\/p>\n

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Yet, virtually all the commentary, editorial columns and essays mentioning Orwell tend to focus exclusively on Nineteen Eighty-Four,<\/i> his classic dystopian novel inducted early on into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

Far fewer articles reference Orwell\u2019s evocative fable Animal Farm<\/i> – yet that deceptively simple animal fable explores profound themes and deeper truths that are just as relevant to today\u2019s dismal authoritarian trends on the extreme Left and Right.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Thus, it\u2019s heartening and refreshing (albeit sad, for its wider social implications) to see an informed and accurate discussion of Animal Farm<\/i>, inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 2011, and its cautionary tale of radical coercive egalitarianism taken to a despotic extreme in \u201cCalifornia watch,\u201d a ruefully informed article in the Spectator<\/i> magazine.<\/p>\n

Written by Lloyd Billingsley, a policy fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif, the Spectator<\/i> 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 \u201cluxury beliefs\u201d and corresponding “progressive” policies allow theft and other crimes to skyrocket, particularly harming or endangering the poor and middle classes.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Billingsley\u2019s column<\/a> weaves in the sadly continuing relevance of Orwell:<\/p>\n

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\u201cAccording to the\u00a0California Globe<\/i>, in organized retail theft Los Angeles ranks first, Oakland second and\u00a0Sacramento seventh<\/a>. The Sacramento city attorney\u2019s effort to criminalize Target for reporting theft could be a first, and for the\u00a0Globe<\/i>\u2019s Katy Grimes, \u201cWe have officially entered George Orwell\u2019s\u00a01984<\/i><\/a>.’<\/p>\n

“It is true that in California all the clocks seem to be striking 13, but the author\u2019s Animal Farm<\/i>\u00a0could be more pertinent.<\/p>\n

“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 \u201crats are comrades.\u201d In the view of\u00a0\u00a0\u201cprogressives,\u201d criminals are victims of oppressive capitalist society, to be rectified by pro-criminal measures such as Proposition 47.<\/p>\n

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“So-called \u201cproperty crime\u201d affects the people who own the stolen property, and drives up prices for consumers, so \u201cpeople crime\u201d might be more accurate. There\u2019s no question that it\u2019s totally out of control in the Golden State.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 <\/i>to do! – for some policies that perversely seem in some ways to be bringing about very real dystopias in California and elsewhere?<\/p>\n

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To appreciate the continued relevance of Orwell, read the Prometheus blog\u2019s Appreciation essay-reviews of Animal Farm<\/a> <\/i>and Nineteen Eighty-Four.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

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IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:<\/b><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/b><\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch <\/b>videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony<\/a> with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer<\/a> and Sarah Hoyt)<\/a>, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/b><\/a> for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us! <\/i><\/b>To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction,\u00a0 <\/span>join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future – and in some ways can be even more powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, individuality and human dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg 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 … Continue reading Orwell\u2019s fable Animal Farm ruefully hailed as relevant to today\u2019s sociopolitical trends\u2028<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,1585,1862],"tags":[437,2481,59,2480,629,2483,2482,1758],"class_list":["post-8047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-fiction-in-the-news","category-george-orwell","tag-animal-farm","tag-california","tag-george-orwell","tag-lloyd-billingsley","tag-nineteen-eighty-four","tag-radical-coercive-egalitarianism","tag-rising-crime","tag-spectator-magazine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-25N","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8047"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8056,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8047\/revisions\/8056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}