I came to know through a good
friend of mine that `Animal Farm by George Orwell completed 75 years
of publication on August 17th 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.
