better pigs this time
the anniversary of animal farm
on aug 17, 1945, orwell published “animal farm,” his prescient critique of communism in the form of a fable about barnyard animals taking over the farm from the oppressive farmer and forming a collective commune with equal rights and mantras of “all animals are equal” and “from each according to his ability, to each according to their needs.” in, what to modern eyes constitutes a familiar pattern, this alleged utopia rapidly devolves into “some animals are more equal than others,” with the pigs taking over, living in the house, oppressing and suppressing other species, doing all tbhe things they once villified, and ultimately resorting to scaprgoating, violence, and brownshirts to continue living high on the hog (sorry) upon the forced labor of others.
it’s the exact story that plays out every time and this has made the book a classic.
but at the time, many still saw collectivism, communism, and “rule by smart elites” as the way forward, scientific modern government for modern people.
and we are far from rid of this view.
such sentiments seem eternal, the endlessly seductive siren song for the self-styled smartypantses: put us in charge and we will order your lives for you. we’re the experts. trust us. you’ll be better off for it.
this delusion of grandeur intersecting with incomprehension of the informational and incentive problems with collectivism and with top down diktat of social mores and economic action has been one of the most calamitous confluences in human history.
100 million died as “communism, one five year plan away from a worker’s utopia since 1917” marched them into woodchipper after woodchipper and the endless oppression of life in crumbling apartment blocks to support a parasite dacha class that you cannot join and that shortly you’ll be unable to criticize.
but no one ever sees this. elites are willfully blind. they know they are the pigs and will get the goodies. it pervades not just politics but art because artists too style themselves elites and thought shapers, the mind workers of collective weal leading the proles to greater consciousness.
and that’s what makes this such a must read.
the (ghastly to my tastes) poet TS elliot was a director at a publishing house that rejected animal farm.
and this rationale has aged like a bangalore bait bucket you left in the trunk of your car all july.
this is so on the nose ironic that, were it not the genuine article, it would seem too over the top as parody.
TS elliot rejects "animal farm" for publication because "it really should have said that we just need to put good people in charge this time and communism will work!” and as it does not espouse such sentiments that it “goes against the current moment.”
TS sees no reason to have the conviction that “animal farm” needed saying or added anything to the debate.
his certitude that "of course the pigs should be in charge, they are more intelligent. you could never have animal farm without them!” seems unshakable.
it’s stunning self-worship from a man who was a pure elite, educated at milton and harvard, later teaching other “elites to be” at the latter. from this argument, it’s clear as which species of farmyard proletarian he fancied himself. this hilarity of misprediction is exceeded only by framing as “negation” that which has arisen as the core, unavoidable time-tested truth:
that “all communist/marxist systems inevitably go the way of animal farm.”
this is the fact (proven to the point of physical law) against which the collectivist cheer squad must ever array itself and why they shall always be wrong.
it’s simply (sorry) pig ignorant.
and this is why you cannot allow these people near any power at all.
you cannot solve the problem of human plenty from the top down. it’s simply not possible. the information about what people want and what would make their lives better can only rise from bottom up because no one knows these facts save the wanters themselves and only their individual choices can keep trades pareto optimal such that only transactions that benefit both sides occur. all the rest is window dressing for assumptive tyranny rooted in unfalsifiable ideas like “collective welfare” and endless propaganda to tell people what they “should” want that inevitably ends up imposed at the point of a bayonet.
to become pigheaded about refusing to understand this is the axis mundi of the elitist aristocratic position: “you dumb, me smart, do as you’re told because i cannot imagine leaving you alone to make choices different from the ones i would have you prefer.”
they will always and everywhere from moscow to beijing, cambodia to havana, and caracas to new york city ignore the track record of the emergent incentive set and informational impossibilities of their plans.
it never works. never.
they will always therefore return to the refrain that “the idea was good, just badly applied. we just need smarter and more moral pigs next time!”
and they will always be wrong.
no one, no matter how good, could make a marxist/collectivist system work and no one good actually seeks to try so you always and everywhere wind up with bad people making bad choices to bad ends.
we’re in a period of terrible overproduction of elites and it’s a consummation as pernicious as it is tedious.
and this glut of pigs is eating us out of house and home.
the song and dance changes, but the refrain remains the same:
“trust us, we’re the experts.”
i have a better idea:
Animal Farm was required reading in my CA high school, as was Tale of Two Cities, Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451, & 1984. Now, no way.
Great article (from title to end-photo).
Eliot unwittingly has high praise for Orwell: "you just piss off everyone that matters."
They are both classics now, of course. But of the two of them, Orwell is the one that is still actively read and rediscovered and who still pisses off the elites.