Vote for Snowball and the three-day week

I just finished Animal Farm. Man, that book was good. When it was first assigned to me in high school, I wasn’t nearly ready to handle that kind of reading. But now that I have a better understanding how the world works and don’t worry (as much) about who I’m going to sit with at lunch, I’m at an age where this kind of reading really turns me on.

For those who haven’t read the book or forgot some of the details, George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a story about this group of animals on a farm that were treated badly by their master, Mr. Jones. In response to their faithful leader’s dying wish, Major, the animals rebelled, kicked Jones off the farm and took control.

After the rebellion, all of the animals fell into different roles. For example, horses worked harder than others, the chickens hung out and laid eggs and the pigs, the cleverest of all the animals, took to making the major decisions for everyone. In no time, Animal Farm turned into a beautiful paradise, where all the animals were free. At the helm of the decision-making, two of the pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, were always at odds. After some months, there came to be a heavy debate on whether the animals should build a windmill, as suggested by Snowball, or not.

The animals forged themselves into two factions: the ones who believed the windmill would save enough labor so they wouldn’t have to work as hard and the ones who felt like they should increase the food production to make sure they didn’t starve to death.

Snowball’s campaign slogan was, “Vote for Snowball and the three-day week.” Napoleon, his opponent, snuffed in opposition then unleashed a group of dogs, chased Snowball away and, thereafter, turned their paradise back into a dictatorship.

I think the moral of the story is two things: if you want to get rid of some oppressive force, you must learn to take care of yourself. The animals did that. The second part is learning to defend that freedom. If only Snowball hadn’t been run out by that sonofabitch Napoleon. Had he won the election, I bet the animals would have built many other life-made-easy projects to cut their three-day week even shorter. Think how easy life would be if we allowed the forces of nature to do our legwork.

Here’s a diagram of some of the project ideas Nick and I have been kicking around in the past year. If you were to connect all of these projects together, you might be able to create that paradisical lifestyle Snowball dreamt of and, if Napoleon set the dogs on you, choose to defend that freedom as if you had no other reason to live. I just may.