I need somewhere to put this, I lost my usb and my printer is broken and I don't know where to put it so I can access it at school, so I will put it in my blog. It's due today. It's an essay on Animal Farm and how 'power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely'.

I will have to kindly ask my english teacher if I can use his laptop to go to 64Digits and copy this essay..

I really need to stop procrastinating. I want to sleep, it's almost 4AM. Yes, it's stupid of me to leave it this late, but I can only think under pressure.

If you can actually be bothered reading it, feel free to correct any errors you can see.

Hello. As you know, you are about to hear yet another speech on the novel, Animal Farm by George Orwell. I will explain to you why and how animalism was corrupted by the pigs.

It is well known that the events and characters in Animal Farm are intended to be an allegory of the Russian Revolution. But it also tells us how power can corrupt. It’s simple. In this book, Orwell shows the reader how leaders can become selfish and distort rules and principles they are subjected under for their own benefit.

It’s natural instinct to look after our own needs and fulfil our own desires before those of others. By nature, every living thing is somewhat selfish. When people (or in this case, the pigs) are given power and the ability to manipulate, they will use the power to their own advantage, sometimes even if it means exploiting those who they have power over.

Without any guidelines and restrictions whatsoever on this authority, the person who has all of the power is free to do what they like with it, for their own selfish purposes. Think of medieval Kings and Queens, they lived in luxury while there were peasants and beggars living in their kingdoms. In the words of Lord Acton, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutelyâ€?. Of course not all people would become completely corrupted when given power, but they will want to indulge in the benefits of having that power, whether it be money or luxury or making themselves feel good about themselves, i.e. ’boosting their ego‘.

The pigs happened to like food and luxury a lot, they wanted more for themselves and that meant less for the other animals. They modified the laws of animalism to justify their actions. They made excuses along the lines of ’We need it more, we need the energy because we think hard to help you allâ€? to justify their own selfish desires. They were cunning and deceitful. They twisted the truth originally known to the animals. They distorted the original doctrine once agreed on by all.

It was a gradual process, so all the animals had was a vague and distant memory to make judgements by. In the end, the pigs became just like the humans. Though some of the animals were suspicious, they could not act on their suspicions because the power of the pigs had already been established. The vicious dogs, who had been trained (or brainwashed) by Napoleon since birth to be loyal to him, made it very hard, and made the animals even more afraid to challenge the pigs. At the end of the story, just when the slightly more intelligent animals were thinking of speaking up despite their habit of never complaining, the voices of the sheep were the voices that were heard.

The simplified version of the principles of animalism intended for the stupider animals to remember was originally ’four legs good, two legs bad’. In the end, the sheep must have thought, ’this is new, our leaders have two legs, two legs must be okay now’ so they started chanting ’four legs good, two legs better!’. The voice of the majority was nothing more than that of easily impressionable conformists who were incapable of thinking logically for themselves.

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.â€? are the words of American poet and novelist Jack Kerouac. The sheep, (and most of the animals) did not question, they just did what the rest of the flock did. You could say that the pigs were like their shepherds.

In the real world, popular opinion is heavily influenced by the media and advertisements and subliminal messages, run by the corporations of the world, who of course want to profit from it, to profit from you. This brings to mind Squealer, who was a very persuasive talker. Some said of him that he could turn black into white. I’m sure most of us have seen advertisements where the business or large corporation tries to give the impression that they actually care, so you will buy their product, which means more profit for them. Like those commercials where the actor says in a warm and friendly voice “At *insert business name here* we care about your community!â€? Or, “When you buy this product, we will donate five percent of our profits to charity because we‘re so generous!â€?

The pigs were like this in a way, they tried to make it look like they were encouraging the other animals in a positive way, and that everything was for their benefit. They promised luxuries for their stalls, but it never happened, everything was really for the benefit of themselves.

The animals were chauvinistic. Chauvinism means 1. Aggressive patriotism: unreasoning, overenthusiastic, or aggressive patriotism and 2. Sense of superiority: An aggressive or prejudiced loyalty to a particular gender, group, or cause. The animals were certainly passionate about Animalism, and would defend it with their lives. The sheep, with their limited ability to think and reason, subconsciously associated the leaders with the cause that was once worthy to be enthusiastic about, and still supported the leaders until the end because they failed to see that their ideas had become corrupted. This corrupted cause and the leaders were what they lived for. Many of them were born into it, and everyone wants to think that they belong to something great.

Take for example, competitive sport. It’s why some people are so passionate about sports teams. They support the team that belongs to the same state, city, country, or club as them. Even if there is no logical reason why the team they support is any better or more deserving of winning the game than the other team, they still remain loyal and passionate about ‘their’ team, simply because it’s ’theirs’. It gives them a sense of pride when a group of talented strangers from the city, state, country, or club that they belong to succeeds in kicking more goals or scoring more tries than the opposing team. Pride for what they stood for and belonged to was a factor in the fall of the value of animalism, it made them too enthusiastic and loyal. Their judgement wasn’t critical and impartial enough to properly see the problems faced on the farm.

This book is an example of how people who have too much power, or desire for power, will control and use the average person for their own purposes. People need to be unlike the sheep, and think for themselves using reason and logic, keeping their morals and values at heart, but also being open-minded and considerate of new ideas. Be open minded, but not so open minded that your brains fall out, as the saying goes.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed listening to my speech, that’s the end if it. I hope it gave you something to think about.