International Women's Day!!... and George Orwell

Hey everyone! Just in case you didn't know today is International Women's Day. So make sure you are nice to all the ladies who make your life better! … and in case you didn’t know tomorrow is National Get Over It Day.... At this point I could make a whole lot of jokes... but I will show restraint for at least once in my life :D

So last night I finished reading Animal Farm... or as Orwell originally called it Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. I love that book! It is so much fun to look for the different historical events that were happening as he wrote the book. Quite clearly he is mostly talking about the Russian Revolution and Stalin (He even changed some things about the Pig Napoleon right before it was published so that it better reflected Stalin). But perhaps more interesting is to see how the story fits in today's society. First, in the rise to power and then the corruption of Mao in China. And secondly in our own world, where, media could very easily convince most of us that something never happened. Donald Miller said in an interview with the Relevant Magazine team that, "We have become a culture of very very stupid people." We pride ourselves on our intelligence, but in reality we have bought into what media tells us with our heart, mind and soul. The words of Derek Webb’s A New Law reflect the common sentiment among many people in North America today:

"(vs. 1) don’t teach me about politics and government just tell me who to vote for don’t teach me about truth and beauty just label my musicdon’t teach me how to live like a free man just give me a new law(pre-chorus) i don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy so just bring it down from the mountain to me."

Orwell said that the moment the pigs should have been overthrown is when they started to keep the milk and apples for themselves. And that the message of Animal Farm is that we will always end up trading one master of another, unless we keep a careful watch. I would say that too me (from this reading) the message seemed to be, we need to work on those critical thinking skills. To watch what we are learning, to study politics, and the music we listen to, and to learn to live like free people. We need to watch that we are not lulled to sleep by the confidence that we are free and in doing so lose that freedom we cherish so much.