I used to say that when I became Chief Fascist Dictator one of my first decrees (or “executive orders”) would be that everyone had to read Animal Farm once a year and write an essay about how the techniques the pigs used applied in the reader’s life – at home, at school, at work, wherever.
There’s many a passage of that novella which haunt me, but or today’s purposes, this – from late on, when the animals are under the pigs’ trotters and have been betrayed yet again – is key.
At last, feeling this to be in some way a substitute for the words she was unable to find, she began to sing ‘Beasts of England’. The other animals sitting round her took it up, and they sang it three times over—very tunefully, but slowly and mournfully, in a way they had never sung it before.
I think about them, clinging to each other, and singing a song that used to represent hope for a better future but is now a sign of resignation, and an attempt to adjust themselves to defeat and despair.
Last night I lurked on a zoom call (well, everyone did because there was no time for questions and the chat function did not seem to be enabled). It was ostensibly “What Next?” but actually was an opportunity for some people who have put their liberty on the line to speak, and for everyone else to get – I don’t know, a vicarious sense of ‘agency’.
The “What Next?” question was barely (or at all) asked, let alone answered. Instead, lots of baffled disbelief that the British State, known around the world for its empathy and general cuddliness, could behave as it is behaving. Lots of “the cat should wear a bell” statements.
Beasts of England, sung slowly and mournfully, as a self-soothing stroke.
We are so so fubarred.
marchudson.net 
Hey Marc, I reckon you’d be a great dictator – at least you’d be an eco-friendly one. A great quote. The bit that really haunts me is at the end. It’s so horrific that I almost can’t bring myself to read it again but here goes
“There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling together, the animals watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It was as though the world had turned upside-down. Then there came a moment when the first shock had worn off and when, in spite of everything–in spite of their terror of the dogs, and of the habit, developed through long years, of never complaining, never criticising, no matter what happened–they might have uttered some word of protest. But just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of–
“Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better!””
This also seems an apt analogy for the followers of populism – especially in the US. It does seem pretty hopeless but well done for being on the side of the angels. Incidentally, one issue I take with Orwell is that his two masterpieces always takes place in dystopias with a distinctly leftist character. This is partly why he is so popular – the left love him because he is anti-authoritarian and the right love him because he is anti communist. It is curious that there aren’t really any “great” novels that are depictions of fascist dystopias – I don’t think The Hunger Games is going to have similar lasting power.
On reflection it might not be so good example since in the US there is enthusiastic support of things that are against their own interests. The difference is that often there is a lot more public buy in into things that any reasonable analysis would say are terrible.
I think you’re right about the Hunger Games – it’s more of an episodic adventure story than an actual dystopia (though the bleak ending is nicely done, imo0.
As for the lack of fascist dystopias – that’s a good point. Brave New World is more of a “centrist”/corporatist one. I haven’t read The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick, so can’t speak to it. Fatherland, by Robert Harris, I recall as being pretty good.
The Orwellian reference, and its cause, is indicative of a long lost wisdom of #ThePause …and with this hashtag, a possible naming of a psychological and sociological ConceptLOST: a “Let it be” thing that now may well be beyond comprehension …but not beyond an unconscious ‘knowing’.
(I am also sitting with “Desire Laiss’ZAPplication Imagined” (DLI) as an alternate moniker – imagined a desire to let the application of our emotions have the space and time requires to – and as evolutionarily evolved – zap our social psyches⁉️)
=)
https://gumlet.tv/watch/67d72a26cbc68914a34e9cd0
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