CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Some Are More Equal Than Others: The Pigs Have Taken Over

Pig farm in Finland. Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0

Why has there been no sustained, system-wide protest movement against President Trump? In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the pigs do not just seize power—they slowly remake the farm in their own image through two rebellions. The first is dramatic and visible: all the animals unite to overthrow the human farmer. They establish a new order based on equality and shared labor. The second rebellion is more subtle. The pigs, led by Napoleon, gradually consolidate power until they rule over the other animals. Eventually, what was meant to be an animal paradise of equality becomes something very different, captured in the phrase: “Some animals are more equal than others.”

Is the description of the second rebellion relevant to the United States today? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue in How Democracies Die that similar gradual erosion of norms can undermine contemporary political systems.

Power in Animal Farm unfolds gradually with little resistance. Small changes accumulate over time: the pigs move into the farmhouse, sleep in beds with sheets, and claim privileges justified by their supposed intellectual superiority. Initially, some of the other animals challenge these changes, but objections fade. The pigs revise the commandments to justify their actions. Democratic meetings disappear. Decisions are made by a small leadership circle and presented to the rest as necessary for the good of all. The language of the revolution and equality remains, but its meaning quietly shifts.

It would be wrong to claim that the United States ever fully resembled the idealistic vision of the animals’ first rebellion. The........

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