Editor:
Many years ago, I read Animal Farm and 1984 never thinking that I’d be looking at comparisons to our own governance. Yet, here we are. I just reread both and found Animal Farm to have as much in common with Trumpian politics as 1984. I was surprised by that, at first. But totalitarianism isn’t about Communism or fascism, it applies to either. The dogs in Animal Farm are so much like ICE, the sheep like MAGA followers, the pigs like the recreant Republicans. I read somewhere recently that Republican and conservative are not synonyms. They’re not.
We are blissfully skating from Animal Farm comparison into that of Orwell’s 1984. Chief Justice John Roberts is handing Trump all the help he needs to take us there. And many Americans are going about their business as if things are normal, like always. They aren’t.
Toward the end of Animal Farm, the last of the animal’s “Commandments” have something of an addendum attached as clarification. It goes from ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL to ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS (in all caps, just like Trump’s tweets). Trump’s billionaire buddies?
Quotes from 1984 that are applicable to where we are now: “… if the facts say otherwise, then the facts must be altered” and “No one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it” and “The Party could not be overthrown from within” and (of the general population): “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
Thank you to Senator Schiff, the increasing number of No Kings protests, the spotlight on Trump’s tweets (imitating Trump, in caps) by Governor Newsom, the work of Peter Baker and his wife, Susan Glasser, and Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic — all confronting lies.
Patricia Lazaravich, Trinidad
This article appears in Halloween.