"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

I have just finished reading George Orwell's Animal Farm. It's a great book and I highly recommend it but, like many political works of fiction, it isn't a pleasant nor fun read, but then it doesn't need to be and nor should it be.

The story tells of how the animals of Manor Farm rise up, overthrow their human masters and begin to run the farm themselves. However as time goes by what was originally a paradise were all animals are free soon turns into a nightmarish place were "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

The book is an allegorical tale of the Russian revolution and criticises soviet communism, and as such is full of characters, places and events that represent historical figures, peoples, places and events to do with the Russian revolution.

All in all, in regard to communism, the book seems to point out the same conclusion I came to after reading The Communist Manifesto, which is that although the basic ideas of equality and people working for the benefit of everyone are sound and overall positive ideas, in my opinion,  the system that communism puts in place, where the state owns everything and everyone owns the state, is very open to corruption. It's easy for someone in power to abuse that power, a tale the world is all too familiar with, resulting in a society where some people suffer so others can benefit, which is exactly what communism seeks to destroy.

I found this a great read and a very helpful criticism of communism.  Below are some links to some web pages where people explain/explore exactly what represented what in animal farm.


Animal Farm - Comparison of characters to the Russian Revolution

George Orwell - Animal Farm - Interpretation of characters and symbols

"WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!"

This is the second time I've had to write this, damn internet ¬_¬

I have just finished the Communist Manifesto, It was certainly an interesting read and was very helpful for my research. It has helped me gain a reasonable grasp of the ideas behind Communism.

Here is a short overveiw, as I understand it:

The ideas behind Commuism is based on the idea of class struggle, it argues that society, praticularly modern 'Bourgeois' society, is founded upon the few oppressing and exploiting the many.

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles...oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another... a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstruction of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”

It states that once the Bourgeois overthrew the previous Feudal society and established a new one centered around the acquisition of capital and the Bourgeoisie's own self-interest. In this new society, the Bourgeoisie built a system where the Proletariat, the working class, had no choice but to live and labour in unpealsent conditions for the benefit of the Bourgeoisie.

“In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e. capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the Proletariat, the modern working class, developed – a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who work so long as their labour increases capital.”

It explains how the Bourgeoisie's society is a self-defeating one, as Industry continues to evolve, compete and expand, it increases the number of Proletariat, giveing them more and more power. It argues that the fall of the Bourgeoisie and the rise of the Proletariat are inevitable. 

“The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the Bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the Bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, is its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory of the Proletariat are equally inevitable.”

It goes on to explain the beliefs behind Communism, It primarily calls for an end to private property, which it  argues is a luxury that only exist for the Bourgeoisie and only exists because the Proletariat does not have that luxury.

“But modern Bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few. In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”

“But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population: its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths.”

It calls for a society where there are no multiple classes, no oppressor and oppressed, where everything is in the hands of the state and everyone works for the mutual benefit of everyone.

“In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and antagonisms, we shall have an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”

It finishes by calling for all Proletariat of the world to rise up and take the world by force, from the clutches of the Bourgeoisie.

“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!”

As I said, It is certainly a very interesting read and was very helpful in gaining a grasp of the idea behind communism, I can see why it has become arguably one of the most important books in the past century.
It has some positive ideas, such as the abolishment of slave and child labour and free education for all, but, although I have yet to investigate how I works in practice, it is easy to see how a society where the state has complete power, could go very wrong. 

Having now a reasonable grasp of the ideas behind Communism I feel I can now begin to look into other ideaologies.

The Bourgeois and The Proletarians

As a part of my research I have been reading  The Communist Manafesto by Karl Marx and Fredeich Engels. The book is divided into four sections, the first being The Bourgeois and The Proletarians. 
I have just finished this first and I thought I'd note down here the main point and themes it talks about.

It first claims that:

  “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles...oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another... a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstruction of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”

 It goes on to describes how as Industry grew, the Bourgeois, formerly the lowest class in soceity, gained power. As they gained power they changed the system from men following their "Natural Superiors", kings, queens etc, and replaced the old system with one that was based on self-interest, the gaining of capital and wealth.

 “The Bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his ‘natural superiors’, and has left no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous ‘cash payment’.”

The Bourgeois' system was dependent on the gaining of capital and wealth through competition, which ment that industry had to keep evolving.

“The Bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.”

 As Industry grew and the Boursgeois grew, so did the Proletariat, the working class, described as an army of slaves.

“In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e. capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the Proletariat, the modern working class, developed – a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who work so long as their labour increases capital.”

However, as long as industry expands and increases and competition forces not-so-successful business, out of business and become Proletarians themselves, the Proletariat increases and rapidly becomes the majority.

 “The Proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority.”
As the individual Proletariat and Bourgeois struggles become more common and the world becomes more and more connected the Proletariat begin to unionise to fight for better working conditions and wages.

 It ultimately argues that the Bourgeois' system is a self-defeating one, because as they continue to change and evolve industry they also create their own worst enemy and set up their own downfall.

“The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the Bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the Bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, is its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory of the Proletariat are equally inevitable.”           

Overall It's very interesting and certainly makes it's argument well, I will continue to read it and take notes as I have been doing.  I'm sure this information will be invaluable as research for my project.

In my unbiased opinion...

For this Project I wish to explore representing political ideologies as characters and using this to examine them in depth, the ideologies I will be examining are Capitalism, Communism, Fascism and Anarchism.

Firstly, I will need to understand these ideologies, what are their goals? what are their reason for following this ideology? and how does it work out when put into practice? I don't want to make a biased and one sided argument, for me the key to this project is to gain a balenced view of these ideologies and examine them from a neutral  and objective stand point. I know that in some cases, such as Fascism, it will be hard to not take a biased view towards it, but I want to understand why someone who supports Fascism would do so, why would they see this political system as right etc. equally I do not wish to support these ideologies either, I simply wish to examine them, I want to know the pros and cons of these political systems.

I have begun to look into Capitalism, by viewing a number of documentaries about capitalism and the financial crisis. Although these documentaries are informative, they are very much against capitalism and so It is hard to gain an unbiased perspective and the view point of those support capitalism. I'm considering whether looking into Ayn Rand would be relevant or not.

Overall I am looking forward to understanding these ideologies and I'm very aware that this topic requires alot of research. This project should be fun.