Animal Farm: All Animals Are Equal, Until They're Not

  

 I genuinely cannot believe this isn’t required reading everywhere. It’s incredibly short, yet it contains a more accurate description of political power than a lot of nonfiction books. I started 2026 by reading this classic for the first time, and I realized it isn’t just a history lesson or allegory/comparison on the Soviet Union; it’s a manual for recognizing how the gears of capitalism function and it tells an incredible story of the vicious cycle of a revolution.

  

The Scapegoat

    The first thing I want to talk about is Snowball, my main man, the hero of our animal revolution. You see, he was betrayed by his brother in arms, Napoleon. Look, I never liked Napoleon, I always knew he was a little swine. However, the tactical brilliance of Napoleon is his use of Snowball as a perpetual scapegoat. First, he gets rid of Snowball by accusing him of treason and all kinds of nonsense, but then he uses him as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong whether it’s a windmill destroyed by a storm, or a missing key that was actually just misplaced, it’s always Snowball’s fault. (Though I'm sure Snowball was actually long gone and probably enjoying himself on another farm somewhere, or at least I hope that's what happened).

    It's wild because this feels reminiscent of modern political ads during election season; it’s really just a smear campaign the entire time. Or blaming some entity that isn't even there just to get everyone to blame the same person and cause some sort of unity by transgression. If you can keep the public focused on a "ghost," you never have to answer for your own failures.

The Craziest Gaslighting Ever

    So in the book, the animals come up with these seven commandments after they overthrew the humans. They are:  

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.  
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes. 
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 
5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 
6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 
7. All animals are equal 

    Now this all seems great and totally reasonable, but our dictator, Napoleon, wanted to break these commandments so badly, that he had his errand boy, Squealer edit the commandments in the middle of the night. So when animals saw he was sleeping in a bed, he would be like "Oh no, it says animals can't sleep in a bed with sheets and we don't use sheets so it's fine."

    This is the ultimate gaslighting. By the time we reach the final edit of the commandments, ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others") all of the commandments have been so mangled that they don't even reflect the reason they rebelled against the humans in the first place! It's interesting to read this in 2026 because there is such a juxtaposition between the gaslighting of 1945 and the gaslighting in 2026. Nowadays we have technology to help us reinforce what we know is real (unless the Mandela Effect is real, then we're all screwed).

The Vicious Cycle

    Benjamin the donkey is perhaps the most interesting character in the sense that he has truly seen it all. He lives a long time and refuses to get excited about the rebellion and the idea of the animals working for themselves and getting paid and whatnot, because he understands the vicious cycle. A rebellion happens, a new power takes hold, and eventually, the new boss starts acting exactly like the old one. He must have seen this occur so many times and throughout the books, he's just like "Yeah okay, just you wait."

    The closing scene is something I think about at least a few times a week, especially in our current political climate. The barn animals look from pig to man, and realize they can no longer tell the difference. They became the very thing they sought to destroy.

 The Work Horse Phenomenon

     Everyone knows that guy or girl at their job that always just says "I will work harder" and they get to work an hour early (without extra pay) and volunteer to do all of the extra work because they think it'll pay off in the end. They show the company loyalty and expect to see it in return, but rarely does that ever happen. Our boy, Boxer, is that guy. He was this huge horse and he hauled so many rocks to build their windmill that he overworked himself so much, that he basically worked himself to death. He got so sick and injured that Napoleon called the butcher and sold Boxer to slaughterhouse. Loyalty is never paid back with loyalty when one party holds more power. 

My boy will never retire to the meadow. 

Final Thoughts

    Like I said, everyone should read this and hopefully it really makes you think about the real world and how the political system has affected each and every one of us. I mean another example is whenever any animal questioned the commandments getting edited or the unfairness of the pigs and dogs getting most of the food, the authorities would always say "Well, you don't want the humans coming back, do you?" and it so heavily reminded me of the Patriot Act here in the US. 
    Us:"Hey, why are you collecting all of our information and spying on us? I feel like I'm losing my right to privacy." 
    Them: "Well you don't want another 9/11, do you?"
    And that shuts us all right up. 

 The Quick Stats

• Genre: Classic, Dystopian, Fiction

• Time to Read: ~6 days

• Read this if you liked: 1984, Brave New World, or if you just want to understand why political propaganda is so effective.

• Reflective Rating: 4.5/5