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Animal Farm II - Ascension of the Absurd
George Orwell must be turning over in his grave. In a world of sequels, part twos, part threes, and so on, there has never been a story written that was so prime for a continuation of the original version. Especially with today's political climate as it is. For those of you who may have never read the classic, (I hope that I am wrong in assuming that there might actually be someone who has not read it) Orwell paints a picture whereby the animals form a coup, overtaking the farmer and attempting to govern utilizing the same basic principles in which they had been governed. What a great metaphor for a system whose political mascots are donkeys and elephants. They, of course, later learned that the ability to govern involves much more than simply holding the office. Even though Orwell's story concerned Communist Russia, the overtures of what can happen when a system of government is abused, even in a democracy, must be recognized.
Apparently, we now have other officials who much like the newly elected officials from Orwell's book are realizing the complexities of public office. Governors holding news conference to confess to the world that they are having an affair, with a man, as his adoring wife stands by his side. Newly elected sheriffs who on their first day of office, promptly fire thirty of the deputies, with armed guards standing by as the new administration takes over the barn…uh…oh sorry, the jail. One candidate after another is being fined for campaign improprieties, and then simply writes them off as book keeping errors. National cabinet appointments are stepping down after disclosing that they had forgotten to pay taxes on a former housekeeper, oh yeah…who also happens to be an illegal immigrant and oh yeah, he also forgot to mention that he had apparently been having a few extra marital affairs and oh yeah…maybe there had been some concerns that he had been doing business with those believed to have connections to the mob.
You know, maybe there are more people than I suspect who have not read Orwell's book. If they had, surely they would have learned something about the life of politics. Or maybe, these latest bunches of political sideshows speak more to the quality of our candidates than the system itself. We constantly talk about how bad the system is, but maybe it is not the system at all. After all the system has worked for over two hundred years and I have yet to see a more effective system being utilized anywhere else in the world. Maybe it is simply the people who want to control the system. Surely we all can agree that the quality of the candidates has gone down a little in our recent history. And it's no wonder. Instead of embracing quality candidates, we look for an avenue to skewer them, even though the methods used are typically below the belt, thereby derailing any success that quality candidates may have. Based on this practice, quality candidates stay out of politics and we get what is left over. But yet, we are shocked when we hear of another elected official who forgets the meaning of public trust.
Maybe, just like the animals on the farm, we might need to look at who is running the farm rather than the methods in which the farm is ran. As we have heard all of our life; fiction is not that far from the truth. Whether in a State House, Council Chamber, the White House, or maybe just in an old barn located in the mind of the late George Orwell.
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