69 Lessons Of Life I Learnt From Animal Farm By George Orwell

I came to know through a good friend of mine that `Animal Farm by George Orwell completed 75 years of publication on August 17^th 2020. It is the shortest thesis on dictators but is presented as a fiction. This book is around 70 odd pages but each line is a learning, and has something startling to offer. I hope this becomes irrelevant and true democracy prevails. That fancy thought is just a pipe dream, and this book has become more relevant than ever before. These are the 69 lessons of life I learnt from Animal Farm. Don’t ask me why 69 lessons, you know the answer.

1. It was written to ridicule Joseph Stalin’s regime but megalomaniacs across the globe have used it to shape their own schemes than those who believe in believe in democracy. It has become a manual for the authoritarians.

2. All those who believe in democracy but do nothing to save it are nothing but Benjamin, the donkey who appears in this work.

3. Old Major is sanctified because he hardly gets tested with the fruits of power.

4. Every horse and donkey loves a rebellion.

5. The aim of the uprising is to remove one common enemy.

6. The initial objective is not to become like him.

7. All rebellions require a squealer to turn black into white with words.

8. Be Napoleon if you want to rule society.

9. If you are Snowball, you will get steam-rolled.

10. There is always a Moses who tells tales to make people feel good. Though he seems to be anti-rebellion, he will be useful in the future, keep him at his place.

11. Rebellion is planned, but usually, something trivial sparks the outrage. When the rebellion succeeds, change the name of the society which you are living in. Name it identifying with the genesis of the revolution e.g. Animal Farm. This helps people to nail the thought in mind, how society has changed.

12. Make your own rules, later they can be amended as per your requirements.

13. The leaders always take the cream or milk, whichever is essential or even both.

14. Leaders lead, they don’t work.

15. Workhorses like Boxer toil for nothing’s sake. Keep them in good humour, you don’t have to do anything for them.

16. Donkey’s like Benjamin know your script, but they won’t harm you. This lot includes well read sceptics who are scared of any draconian laws.

17. The main leaders disagree, and that starts the discord. It is usually the ruthless, power-hungry, and insolent guy who is the opponent.

18. After the revolution succeeds, a lot of skill development is done, but don’t worry, it will taper off, like a new broom’s performance when it becomes an old one.

19. Shrink the rules to reduce it to a binary. This impresses the sheep, and when the sheep is impressed no intellectual and critical analysis matters. They just go on bleating and can outshout even an elephant.

20. If you are a Napoleon, cultivate the hounds.

21. Management knows how to justify the unjust perks it enjoys.

22. A successful anti-establishment movement is always discredited by its enemies.

23. A hero emerges after the first war of the new independence. He has to be abused, and chased if you are a Napoleon. Remember what Chekov said about guns appearing in the first act.

24. Usually, the educated leader of the successful uprising talks of technological development to sustain freedom.

25. Donkeys are sceptic, and the converse is true.

26. Use the hounds for the first time as a surprise. The maxim `shock your rivals to make the public suckers’ always works.

27. Squealers are useful in turning the tide.

28. Never stop promoting hatred against the common enemy.

29. Once you become the leader, you should repackage the old regime’s plans, that you had criticised when you were not in the saddle.

30. Squealers will sell the old repackaged plan as the new plan, as initially your project. Remember, a lie said a thousand times becomes a truth.

31. The tactic is the word to be used for every foolish move of yours.

32. If you have ferocious hounds, the chances of acceptance of your ideas increase by 100%.

33. Make sacrifice look voluntary but ensure that non-sacrifice has many crippling penalties.

34. Workhorses like Boxer will always be your side.

35. Tell your people that trade and enmity are two different sides of wholly different coins.

36. The hounds and sheep who bleat in your praise will always keep the rebellion down. Give the sheep something easy and straightforward to suck on, just like `Four legs good, two legs bad’. They will repeat it ad nauseam, and no stratagem against you will prevail. The hounds will put away those who are contemptuous of the sheep.

37. If dogs create fear, the sheep are there to spread the cacophony. They can’t absorb much, so give them something catchy to bleat.

38. Keep your slogans catchy. You need not talk factual nor pleasing. Your talk should create a buzz in the air.

39. People love popular images. In this book, it comes as four legs giving orders to two legs. If you wondered why a politician takes a public servant to task in full public view, the answer is to create a favourable vision of himself.

40. Change the rules frequently, introduce more and more new schemes, put merely, often keep changing the goal post. Before people question on what happened to this scheme, announce another programme, and so on and so forth.

41. Earmark public vision to a grand illusion. In this case, it is the windmill.

42. For everything that goes wrong, blame the previous. In this book, Napoleon blames Snowball for all the wrong, and succeeds in diverting the attention of the animals, from his abject failures.

43. Keep in the horizon, the impending threat of the enemy.

44. Spread the rumour that `all is well’ especially when there is a catastrophe. Convince the sheep, and they will sell the concept.

45. Use false narratives, and frequently compare yourself with a deposed leader to prove how benevolent and assertive you are.

46. If you cannot crack the hard nuts, use the dogs to make them confess of crimes they have never committed.

47. Break the unity among people. Get one animal to kill another animal.

48. Create a blood bath, and exploit those sentiments to perpetuate your regime.

49. Erase all the signs, ideals, and monuments of the rebellion, which got your independence.

50. Manipulate the figures of the economy. Get the squealers to do the groundbreaking, and later you can take on.

51. Get squealers to apportion even the most insignificant achievements to yourself.

52. Create an ugly image of your rival or neighbour in the minds of your people.

53. Keep the scare of attack from them evergreen. Create a few fake ones.

54. Don’t allow discussion on the intelligence failure that caused the attack or lack of security. Focus on the farce of a victory after much bloodshed on your side. Don’t allow fixing accountability for your failures, raise the crescendo, and whip up the rhetoric. Once you whip it up enough, the squealers, dogs, and sheep will ensure it becomes more significant than Mount Everest.

55. New adversity helps people to forget the old ones.

56. Learn how to convince people to accept what you earlier projected as evil, is a good one now.

57. Don’t call any cut as reduction but label it as re-adjustment.
58. People harried, confused, and bullied will act that things are better now than before.

59. Frequently give speeches without reason.

60. Have a con godman like Moses, who keeps telling people a lot of fables. The believers will be fixated to him, and the non-believers will be busy making mince-meat out of his logic.

61. Over time, make friends with your sworn enemies. Learn how to shift people from saying `Four legs good, two legs bad’ to `Four legs good, two legs better’.

62. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal.

63. Never lose your acerbic talk and pungent humour.

64. Be so ruthless with your people that even your enemies mistake it as efficiency.

65. Discard the workhorse when they lose their utility, send them to the slaughterhouse.

66. Make your goal the wish of a soldier or a workhorse.

67. Keep the lies going. Remind the people of their glorious past and hard-working ways.

68. At times, tell the people that stories of attacks by the enemy are untrue.

69. Make the first leader, the secret agent of your enemy.