In the tale, the animals revolt against humans and take over the farm and develop the tenants of animalis. It starts with "All animals are equal". When the Lenin figure is removed, Stalin is left and the phrase is revised to "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others".
This is the implementation of Stalinism, or essentially and oligarical dictatorship which Russia had become and remains today, although still mistakenly associated with "Communism"by the rest of the world. Further confusing things, they were called the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" or "USSR". They were not a socialism or a communism.
In the 1950's "Communism" became the focus of Joseph McCarthy and a very black period in our history where people that believed in communism and people labeled communist sympathizers, were labeled as enemies of the state and indeed the american people.
A main message of Animal Farm is to show us that Communism easily mutates to Stanliism, something that Orwell saw happen and wrote an published in 1945, prior to McCarthy.
Communism itself never really has been implemented in a lasting situation. Idealically, everyone is equal and the group owns the means of production and an equal distribution of wealth. I personally believe it is impossible to reach a lasting communism, because of the nature of man - we have changing desires and are by nature competative.
Socialism in a course has some of the same problems, but itself is not the same as Communism, because it is looked at more as the common management of means of production - but allows for ideas like profit and wealth.
Conservatives have lumped these two (Communism and Socialism) together since McCarthyism, but the truth of the matter is they are 90 degrees from each other. And they then conflate these to the Oligarchical Totalatarianisms that are the old USSR, newer Russia and China, in an attempt to scare people off.
But if we go back to the idea that "all animals are equal", we see that Democracy, Socialism and even idylic communism have this idea at their core. And it is at thsi point where we have to step back and look at ourselves and understand
When we start trying to label "Immigrants" as dangerous, When we allow oppression of people by race/origin, religion, age, sex, gender identy, sexual preference we are losing that basic ideal and pushing into the dominance of one group over others.
And when we ask ourselves, what do American soldiers sacrifice their lives for, it needs to be the removal of oppression, not the implementation of it. It is easy for the unscrupulous to use conservatism as a route to facism. When does communism as and idea stand it's best chance of contemplated? When our pendulum swings so far in the direction of capitalism, facism/autocracy that people are oppresed, enslaved and hungry.
And lest we think that "Hey, the economy is good, that's not happening here" - think again. The economy is great for people with money. There is plenty of hunger, homelessness, unemployment. But oppression happens lots of ways. It happens as voter suppression. It happens as police violence towards people of color. It happens with women making less than men for the equivelent work. It happens as elderly and vets get pushed to the sidelines, as corporations pull retirement plans out from under their employees, as they discontinue benefits for retirees. It happens when we don't care to feed children lunches, care if our population starves or we degrade their education - in fact with all government privitization, as the public investment is stolen. It happens with tax cuts that affect our social security and medicare.
What keeps this revolution from happening? Balance. Progress. Investment. Caring about people - all people. Real opportunity. Things that are squarely in the middle of the spectrum - they are not Democrat or Republican ideas - they just site as a collaberation between sides, rather than a swing to the polar end. With as far right as we are, we need a long, sustained push from the left to get anywhere near center. So not just this November. But in multiple Novembers to come. And the left and center win when people show up. So show up. Vote. If you run into a real issue getting there, call around. Call assistance. You can get to the polls. You can vote. Please.
