Political Thought and the Animal Farm
Political Though
Gilbert Domingo L. Vidanes
102460
“Totally Pigging Out”
Even before reading Animal Farm I already had hunches and inklings that animals could run governments. I mean, look at politics today. We have monkeys seated as our leaders and crocodiles as our legislators. But who would have thought that even Pigs could get a shot at similar posts? Well I know there’s something called a “pork barrel”, but I just find it hilarious that there are actually “porkers”. Moreover, though the story is obviously fictitious, who would have thought that they could actually do a better job in leading the citizens (or animals) under their form of governance compared to some “leaders” in real life? Kidding aside, the fact still remains that animals will always be animals. Going over some of the ideals that I saw in the book, there were actually quite a lot that can be related to Political Thought. Notions of democracy, social contract and enlightenment ideas, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, St. John of Salisbury, and even remnants of Tocqueville can be seen. However, among all the ideas in the book that can be related to Political Thought, I have narrowed those that I would like to really expound on into 3 points. These are the ones that really caught my attention and made me think of what kind of government are these pigs trying to run? First would be the depiction of what seemed to be a democracy. Snowball and Napoleon, after their uprising against old Farmer Jones, established a form of government wherein everyone’s interests were generally sought after. Snowball even created committees wherein the other animals could learn specific kinds of work to apply for the benefit of the whole community (e.i. Blacksmithing and carpentering). He also made chances for everyone to become educated as he pushed for the other animals to learn how to read and write and not only participate in work. Aside from this, we can also look at how they went about with their
Gilbert Domingo L. Vidanes
102460
“Totally Pigging Out”
Even before reading Animal Farm I already had hunches and inklings that animals could run governments. I mean, look at politics today. We have monkeys seated as our leaders and crocodiles as our legislators. But who would have thought that even Pigs could get a shot at similar posts? Well I know there’s something called a “pork barrel”, but I just find it hilarious that there are actually “porkers”. Moreover, though the story is obviously fictitious, who would have thought that they could actually do a better job in leading the citizens (or animals) under their form of governance compared to some “leaders” in real life? Kidding aside, the fact still remains that animals will always be animals. Going over some of the ideals that I saw in the book, there were actually quite a lot that can be related to Political Thought. Notions of democracy, social contract and enlightenment ideas, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, St. John of Salisbury, and even remnants of Tocqueville can be seen. However, among all the ideas in the book that can be related to Political Thought, I have narrowed those that I would like to really expound on into 3 points. These are the ones that really caught my attention and made me think of what kind of government are these pigs trying to run? First would be the depiction of what seemed to be a democracy. Snowball and Napoleon, after their uprising against old Farmer Jones, established a form of government wherein everyone’s interests were generally sought after. Snowball even created committees wherein the other animals could learn specific kinds of work to apply for the benefit of the whole community (e.i. Blacksmithing and carpentering). He also made chances for everyone to become educated as he pushed for the other animals to learn how to read and write and not only participate in work. Aside from this, we can also look at how they went about with their