Published September 18, 2007
More and more, some pieces of 20th Century British literature read like current headlines.
William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" explores the lives of shipwrecked boys and how they regress without supervision, quite similar in theme to the new CBS show "Kid Nation."
One promotion for the show suggests that adults have screwed things up and maybe unsupervised children are more equipped to make better decisions.
George Orwell's two novels, "Animal Farm" and "1984," could be parodies of our current presidential administration. Our current events are an eerie hybrid of those novels, both of which were first published about 60 years ago."
Animal Farm" begins with the coup of a farm by the animals living there. They have decided that they are more capable of managing things than the farmer so they run him off his property.
Hmm, thinking that we're more capable of running someone else's home and taking over so that we can do such, that sounds familiar.
The eventual (animal) leader of the farm, Napoleon, decides to re-write history and suggests that any animal that opposes his dictatorship is a villain.
Since 2001, history has been re-written, distorted and elected officials have been appointed instead of, well, elected. Instead of opponents being called villains, we get words like unpatriotic or lost souls.
Napoleon goes against every principle that "Animal Farm" was founded on, but his lackeys spend a great deal of time convincing the other animals that he is a great leader. They say he is only going against the animals' fundamental beliefs in order to make the farm a better place.
Some of our basic rights go out of the window when it's "believed" that not having them is in our best interest, or something like that. Wiretapping anyone's conversations because we feel like it will keep this country safe and prevent any more attacks on our soil. Keeping airport passengers dehydrated will have them too weak to cause us any harm.
Napoleon's supporters try to convince the other animals of his great doings while they are overworked, hungry and lacking proper shelter. Convincing the destitute that they're under great leadership though they are in dire need? Wow, I'm glad stuff like that doesn't happen in America.
Napoleon sells his greatest supporter (a horse named Boxer) to a glue factory so that he may purchase more liquor and drinking whiskey becomes a habit of his.
That reminds me of soldiers who dutifully serve multiple or extended tours in Iraq. They bravely fight for our country and maybe the thanks one of our injured soldiers could get is a stay in a medical center like Walter Reed.
In the end of the story, all founding principles have been reduced to one line: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote "all men are created equal." I suppose he literally meant "men" and only those who weren't black or Native American or poor.
There is still a serious lack of equality in America: compare Mississippi's federal recovery assistance to that of Louisiana's. Or compare the differences between education and health care for the rich and poor.
Maybe that promotion had a point after all.
Katrina L. Rogers of Shreveport is a member of The Times Community Board.
