Classics Without All the Class discussion

What are your thoughts on the seven commandments issued by the animals? How were the command-ments eventually changed?

Ahhh, they started out looking so great: Equality for all, every animal working together for a common cause. Over time, corruption among the higher thinking animals led to too much power in one place. They started amending the rules right and left to better secure their own positions of superiority.

6 kind of didappeared left with one altered golden rule. Power apmost always brings abuse. Not to the extreme we see here but certainly quite commonplace in the world. How often do you hear of CEOs abusing oower. Not just society but almost just a part of human nature.

In the beginning, the commandments represented a socialist and almost utopian society. Everyone had their place and everyone was happy. As the pigs' abuse of power increased and the Farm moved towards a totalitarian state, they began changing the commandments to fit their "needs". Whether or not such re-writing of the rules actually happens in society or not, it is perhaps the most blatant form of political abuse of power and social manipulation.

Yet the first commandments did not think of everyone creatively; anything with two legs was considered bad. In a truly egalitarian society, the animals and humans would have found a way to live side by side peacefully. Much like the real communist uprising, though, the working class lumped all those in the ruling class together and thought of all things "bourgeosie" as bad and to be thrown away.

Monica wrote: "In the beginning, the commandments represented a socialist and almost utopian society. Everyone had their place and everyone was happy. As the pigs' abuse of power increased and the Farm moved towa..."

Well summarized. Isn't that what most governments set out to do, set up rules that work for everyone, but modify them according to real or imagined needs? Eventually, someone ends up with too much power.