Every system, particularly political and social systems, are based off of rules. The rules may be written or unwritten, but nonetheless, the rules exist and conforming to them — at least appearing to conform to them — is often an important aspect of life. Since we are often told of late that our democracy is at risk, I thought it might be fun idea to watch, with my kids, a short, animated movie about rules, and how important rules are. So, the other night, we settled in, and the screen began to play 1954’s Animal Farm.

The film is based off of a book by the eponymous author, George Orwell. In the story, a group of Animals on a fictional farm band together in revolution to overthrow their abusive, drunken overseer. The revolution is successful and the animals establish a few simple rules that initially lead to peace and plenty for all of the animals. It is short-lived though, as the reality is that the animals are slowly spending down the wealth and resources of the farm, and there is subterfuge from within at work.

The story was much more enjoyable for me as a child when it was clear that the satirical allegory was not-so-subtly hiding the connection between the pigs, Old Major, Snowball, and Napoleon, to the real-life leaders of the old Soviet Union, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. It is an easy concept to grasp that people or pigs obsessed with the idea of power would be willing to change the rules as it suited them.

In America, though, we didn’t need to worry about any of that. We have a Constitution. It is written down. There are rules for how the rules can be changed. The burden of difficulty for changing the rules is rather high. If the people in power become a problem, they can be changed every couple of years by popular election. There is a Supreme Court that will arbitrate fairly in the event the rules are broken.

However, the times are always strange. One of America’s presidents was branded a “Threat to Democracy,” and a pandemic plague struck the land. Suddenly the rules we all remembered written on the side of the barn were different.

Speech would continue to be free, but the government was the single source of truth. Your livelihood might be forfeit if you were spreading misinformation; Even if that misinformation was later determined to, in fact, be true. The definition of information or misinformation could change daily.

Election cycles — especially presidential election cycles — are held every four years and each party’s nominee is chosen by democratically held primary elections. It turns out that there is an exception to this rule if one party’s incumbent withdraws, whether he wanted to or not, and names his successor. Then, the party elite will choose the nominee without any primary elections.

You can go about your business normally unless a pandemic is declared. Then you must stay inside of your home, or mask whenever you leave. Some people are safe to be around, but most are not. It is best to eliminate the un-safe people from your life. Dear friends and family may not all be safe to be around.

The Constitution that you studied very briefly in school is sacred. But it might also be dangerous. The electoral college results in a “Tyranny of the Minority.” It would be far better to abolish the republic and allow the popular vote concentrated in elite cities along the coastlines to dictate all policy. The popular vote is the will of the people, and it can’t at all be influenced by propaganda.

As the movie went on, my children reflected on the unfairness of behavior by the farm’s ruling class, led by the litter of pigs. They exclaimed, They are changing the rules!

Then there was Boxer — the honorable workhorse of the farm. In order to build a windmill that will provide endless power and resources to the farm, he is always the first to the job site, and always the last to leave. With honor and an envious nobility, he expends his efforts on working for the betterment of all of the animals. Alas, disaster strikes and he is injured. The animals take him in and expect him to receive a worthy retirement, but because he now would consume more than he produces, the pigs collude to sell him off to the glue factory.

I remember reading Boxer’s story as a child and thinking that he was treated very unfairly. He was. But, it isn’t enough to only blame the pigs for his treatment. He is also responsible for it. By not recognizing the changing rules, the questionable behavior, and what the implications of those things were, he did nothing to change or prevent the fate that befell him.

The situation for the everyday farm animals continued to erode. Eventually, the farm is in a much worse state of affairs than existed during their initial revolution. The pigs are acting like humans. Rations are shorter than ever. All of the wealth that the animals produce is extracted for the pigs’ benefit. The lone rule left on the side of the barn is: All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

Lockdowns, masking, and vaccine segregation created two classes of people: those more equal — the essential laptop class — and those less equal — the non-essential working class. Some are more equal than others.

Increasing inflation may cut at our rations and make it more difficult to buy necessities, but we didn’t need much of the luxury we had anyways. No animal shall sleep in a bed, except those who receive the newly printed money first. Then, they may sleep in beds, but without sheets.

The movie ends with a different outcome than the book it is based off of.

In the movie, the animals see that the pigs have become the men they rebelled against, and they rebel again.

In the book, there is no second revolution, but the animals look on in horror, unable to distinguish the difference between the pigs and men. The pigs have even restored the original farm’s name, “The Manor Farm.”

The original novel was titled, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. The subtitle was dropped by the publishers before the book was published, but it is a fairy tale in which the farm undergoes troublesome transformation to end at exactly the same place it started.

Real-life is not a satirical, allegorical, fairy tale following a beast fable. Consequences are real, and last beyond the closing cover of a book, or the ending credits of a movie. When the rule-of-law becomes a subjective endeavor, and the permanent bureaucracy is able to change the basic rules by which we think we’ve agreed to live, the only path ahead is down the road of the Animal Farm.

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This article is republished with permission from the author’s Substack.

Image credit: Flickr