Animal Farm - Episode #3 - Propaganda - the art of creating alternative reality - and dictatorships!

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Animal Farm - Episode #3 - Propaganda - the art of creating alternative reality - and dictatorships!   Script 3- Animal Farm   HI, I’m Christy Shriver.    I’m Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  We are on episode 3 of Orwell’s classic fairy story- in quotations- or allegorical novella Animal Farm.  And although the book is extremely short, it is compact and full of political satire.  On week one, we spent most of the episode looking at Orwell’s life, his perspective of the world and how he formed it.  On week two we considered the book as a political allegory on the country of Russia specifically in the context of the Russian revolution.  We didn’t get very far into the story, only through chapter three, but we focused on who each character on the farm was supposed to represent through an almost direct allegorical correlation to a person in real life.  Today we are going to change directions and discuss the book in much broader terms while also discussing through chapter 7.   That’s correct.  Today we want to talk about the book as satire.  Satire is defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn- what does that mean.  It means that a person who is writing satire is trying to get you to see something about yourself or the world that is wrong and he’s trying to hold a mirror up to it.  Let me put it this way, and the satirist looks at the world and sees something wrong with it, but he/she believes that because you’re so used to seeing things as they are- you don’t notice something that’s really wrong.  So what he does is try to create a piece of art that highlights the flaw he thinks you’re overlooking.  In some ways it serves the same purpose as a sermon in church- he’s moralizing in some sense.  The reason satirists use humor as much as they do is because many times, we are more likely to take their criticism seriously if we can laugh at it.  And we’re less likely to be offended than if they just lectured us.  Of course, in America, tv personalities use shows like Saturday Night Live, South Park and even the Simpsons to do this.  We have websites like the Onion and Babylon Bee that do this.  What you will see immediately, especially in those last wo examples is that all satire is based on OPINION.  This is my perspective- consider it, is the concept.   So then the question becomes how do that do it?   You’re right, that is the question.  And there are tons of techniques available to them: they use burlesque, chariacture, puns, malapropisms, jargon, irony, hyperbole, defamiliarization, and many others- and many of these are in this little book.  We’re going to look at just a couple of these and show how they are being used in this book and then we’re going to discuss WHY they are going used.  What’s the big idea he’s criticizing in this book, in particular these middle sections of the book.  And in Orwell’s case, he begins his satire before he even starts the book with the title.  The book is called “Animal Farm” and the subtitle was a fairy story.  Now let’s think about this in terms of satire.  What is a fairy tale?  It’s a magical story, it’s idealized; it ends with a happily ever after.  And one thing we all know about fairy tales is that they are not real.    So, what has Orwell done- here we have irony and hyperbole- this is NOT a fairy tale, although it’s magical in the sense that animals are talking- what he is saying is that socialists want to do is believe in a fairy tale- believe in a lie.  What they are telling us can happen is just a fairy tale.  It’s a dream- it’s fantasy- and not only that- but it ends poorly for us if we believe it.  It ends poorly for us if we believe or trust them AT ALL.  This subtitle is dripping in irony- this book is the opposite of a dream.  It’s a nightmare.  And if you believe in this dream- you are a flat fool.   This is where we ‘re going to get into the middle portion of the book- Orwell is not-so-subtly saying- only the dumbest of blind fools allow themselves to be victimized in the way I’m about to describe to you.  This middle section of the book really is about the power and techniques of propaganda.  What we see here is the pigs emerging as the leaders on the farm.  They take over- they are trusted with leadership and then spend the rest of their time exploiting everyone else- and how does this happen- through the use of propaganda.   So, let’s jump back to satire for a minute.  Satire is when he’s trying to blow something up to get you to see something you’re blind to.  How the satire is going to work here is in large part through hyperbole, defamiliarization and dramatic irony.  Hyperbole is when you exxgerrate for the purpose of making a point.  Defamiliarization is when you describe something everyone recognizes as if they didn’t recognize it, and dramatic irony is when the reader of the story knows something the characters in the story don’t know.  And in this book what is going to become painfully obvious to the reader is that the characters don’t know is that they are being lied to and exploited by the pigs- but they don’t know it.    So Garry, what is propaganda, and what is going on in the real world that parallels Animal farm?   As a general concept propaganda can be defined as information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.  And obviously our world is FULL of it and we’re extremely used to seeing it.  For example, if I want to sell you potato chips- I might describe it as “sugar free”, and a vegetable.  Although both of those things are true, it’s misleading.  I’ve made them sound almost like a diet product.  You should never eat potato chips for the purposes of dieting and losing weight because in this case what I am not saying is that they are fried, full of cholesterol and a carb.  And in my example, I’m not even lying- and what we’re going to see is that lots of propaganda starts with misleading but goes farther and farther into flat out lies.      Historically- of course, Hitler really stunned the world with his masterful use of propaganda, but Stalin was just as good as master.  However, and what we see in Animal Farm, once he fools you long enough to get the chains around you- he tries less and less to lie to you and just makes you submit.    So, let’s take a look.  In a historical sense, the propaganda strategies the communist used started with Lenin or in our book old major.  One thng you must remember about propaganda is that it relies on you turning off the logical part of your brain.  The propagandist wants you to act emotionally- not logically- so every one of these strategies is meant to short-curcuit your thinking process and get you to react emotionally rather than logically-= so back to Old Major What did he do that propagandists do   He introduces slogans- and what do slogans do- they are short little phrases that everyone can remember that makes us feel something- “All men are evil! All animals are comrades”. He also introduces this idea of “flag waving”= flag waving is the use of patriotism as a way of getting people to kind of line up and doing what you want. He teaches everyone “Beasts of England” and what you’re going to see is that they will sing this song every week until Napoleon has totally taken over total control in chapter 7 and he doesn’t need it anymore.   Flag Waving, btw, is a strategy every country does in times of war, and I’m not trying to say it’s bad to wave the flag and be patriotic- it’s not bad.  Everyone should feel pride in their country and work to make it as great a place as they possibly can- that’s hatleast most of us do- that love of country is something that can be. Manipulated.  People can use our love of country against us- and we’re going to see this is definitely the case on Animal Farm. The third thing that Old Major does which may go unnoticed is he uses this strategy we call “plain folks”-the “plain folks” propaganda strategy is when a leader says he’s “just like you” when he’s clearly not. We see politicians do this all the time, “they put on their blue jeans and go out and get their picture taken in a fast food restaurant, on a farm or in a factory when really they are millionaires who have never done a days work of physical labor in their lives.  But they want you to believe they can identify with you.  Old Major is the elite on the farm. He is described as a “prize-winning boar” He is over 12 years old and has sired over 400 baby pigs”- yet he speaks as “one of the people”.  He’s going to claim I can identify with you and I’m one of you.  This is a trick the pigs do for the rest of the book.    So, now that we have a general idea of what propaganda is and how it works, let’s open up the book back to chapter three and kind of trace what’s going on as Orwell unfolds this story and the obvious Russian parallels in real time.      First of all we have the pigs- who don’t actually work- they supervise with their “superior knowledge”   We see Boxer with his slogan “I will work harder”   And we see the slogans and “flag waving” with the hoisting of the green flag on Sundays, the “Meeting” where everyone got their instructions for the week but that always ended with the singing of the Beasts of England.   We also see a maxim emerging that snowball introduces, “Four legs good, two legs bad.”  This is another technique called “repetition” which seems kind of simple but actually is extremely effective.  The idea is the more you hear something the less likely you are to question whether it is true or not.  It’s why advertisers pay for you to see something over and over and over and over again- the more you repeat something the more likely it is to be true.  Of course, if we sit and think about that- that makes no sense, but remember, propaganda is 100% designed to short-circuit the thinking process.  It’s supposed to shut down YOUR thinking and let me tell you what to think.    In chapter 4 of Animal Farm, mr. Jones has run off to the other farms and we see the animals trying to spread their philosophy to the animals of those farms via pigeons.  This of course is Russia’s attempt to spread communism- the song “Beasts of England” starts floating around the other farms and, of course the farmers fight back with their own propaganda- spreading rumors that Animal farm animals practice cannibalism, but also shutting down anyone caught singing Beats of England.  The big deal in chapter 4 is the Battle of the Cowshed- which of course when the other farmers tried to take back Animal Farm for Mr. Jones- but they’re fought off by the animals.  I do want to note that Boxer is a good guy. He hurts a human and feels bad about it.  He never wants to turn anyone, and that’s something we’re going to see throughout.  Garry, before we get back to propaganda, tell us what event did that parallel in actual history.   Sure, and we could go a lot into this, but we don’t have time to- but this, of course is the famous Russian Civil War- as the book goes on it’s going to become really obvious that Mr. Frederick is supposed to be the Germans and Mr. Pilkington is supposed to be the British and Americans.  Now, what we know about this period of time is that the Germans are fighting the British/Americans and after the Revolution the Germans kind of shouldered the Russians out of the war.      but we have the last remnants of the anti-bolsheviks (the white army) trying to fight the communists (the red army)- the white Army is kind of what is left of landowners, middle class people, monarchists, that sort of group- they are really no match for the gigantic working class     By 1922 the civil war was over and the Soviet state is firmly established.    All the old guard could do is what Mollie did and that’s run away.  Another thing that happened in the Russian Civil War that is accurately depicted and highlighted in Animal Farm  is that Trotsky or Snowball emerges as a military hero.  That’s kind of a big deal and problem that Stalin has to deal with.  In real life, Stalin was appointed the General Secretary of the Communist Party (Lenin actually regretted doing this).  He uses his position to make himself a political force and oust Trotsky out completely.  In Animal Farm we see this through the argument over the windmill.  The windmill, depending on who’s opinion you want to read could represent the spread of communism itself or it could represent industrialization or the industrial revolution.  I tend to see it more as industrialization, but either way- what we see is that Napoleon and Snowball are constantly arguing over it.  And everyone else is just watching.  Napoleon clearly wants to take charge-   And brings us back to Propaganda in chapter five- I was going to talk about this next week, but I will bring it up now- people disagree as to who exactly is the protagonist in this book- if you think this book is primarily about Napoleon or Stalin and how he rises to power- then the climax of the book takes place now in chapter five- if you think this book is about the people or Boxer, then the climax is going to come later. I think it’s nice to look at it both ways, actually- and if you have to write an essay on this book- that would be a nice one- But for now, let’s think of this book as being about Napoleon- Stalin or any other Totalitarian leader.  Because in this chapter he’s going to totally seize control, and he’s going to use propaganda to do it.    So in chapter five, as you’ve already stated, Mollie runs off. She’s out.  The sheep are full on bleating “Four legs good, two legs bad” non-stop- slogans.  And if you notice, they do this on cue every time Snowball tries to say anything.  This, of course, is something we see in political discourse today.  If the other side is making a cogent argument of any kind, we just get protestors to go outside and bleat out vacuous nothing accusations over and over and over again hoping to drown out any logical or reasoned discourse.    We do need to introduce what I think is THE most powerful propaganda tool there is- and that is fear!  I see this in the real world more than anything else and of course we see it here.  Fear, as use by a propagandist is used actually in two ways.  And ultimately it’s Napoleon’s use of terror and fear that gets him to win control at the farm.  Snowball is a much more eloquent speaker- even if what he talks about is probably not possible- it’s still a lovely dream.  He talks about how the windmill is going to make life wonderful.  It’s going to bring electricity, and easier life with a three day work week.  Napoleon can’t compete with that, but he has an Ace in the hole. He’s been training up these puppies- and they are loyal to him.  At the point where he sees he’s going to lose the political war- he launches a full on terror attack on Snowball.  And he violently runs him off.  Now at first that doesn’t seem like a propaganda strategy, but it is.  Because everyone is watching.  Now everyone is filled with terror.   You’re exactly right- you could be next.  This, of course, is an obvious representation to the kGB and the NKVD, or the Russian secret police.  The KGB terrorized the world.     And this use of terror is extremely effective, but it’s not the only way to use fear- it can also be used psychologically andIt’s used psychologically and Napoloen will use Squealer his voice-box- to scare the animals into submission for the rest of the book.    We haven’t highlighted Squealer’s role as chief propaganda agent- but obviously that’s what he is.  He’s got a great name “Squaler” because that’s exactly what he does- he squeals.  And here we see him doing what propagandist do- he’s going to rewrite history the way he wants it to be and then repeat the new version as many times as necessary until we can’t remember what actually happened.   The psychological term for this is ‘gaslighting” and people do it all the time.  The problem Napoleon had was the Snowball was a war-hero- Christy, read for us how Squealer changes the history for the animals   I’ll read page 50-51 n So here we see the commonly practiced propaganda technique called “assertion”- that’s when you just say something so strongly you make it true by the authority of your assertion, Squealer says, “Snowball, as we now know, was no better than a criminal.”  Well, of course, nobody knew that to be true, but he says it so emphaticially it must be.    Well, they try to argue with him, but he’s rewritten the history for them.    And that’s what gas-lighting is.  They question their version of the truth because Squealer seems so sure of his.  And he’s smarter.  He’s in authority.  Who am I to question this authority.      And then we’re back to fear- he says this line and he uses it for the rest of the book, “Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones to come back.”  And this shuts down the argument because if they know aythng- they know they don’t want Jones to Come back.    And of course- this is going to be the line that carries Boxer back to work grind.  He’s going to work harder.  Because the harder he works, the less likely Mr. Jones is to come back.   By the end of chapter 5- Napoleon has rewritten history completely, the windmill was to be built afer all, Napoleon had never been opposed to it and actually it was HIS plan and never snowballs.  In fact Snowball is now a “dangerous character and a bad influence”.    This technique plays on cognitive dissonance- talk about this a little- how people manipulate   the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.   Cognitive dissonance – confronted with to competing views that be accurate and you have to chose one. It’s a disconnect   And let me bring it back to satire for a moment- by this point in the book a reader is supposed to be really angry.  Through the use of dramatic irony, everyone reading knows the animals are at.horrible- and this is Orwell saying- see, this is what is going on in real life that YOU CAN’T SEE.  You’re being lied to by people in authority.  You are being gas-lighted. They are using your patriotism against you.  They’re using slogans and stupid non-sensical bleating of protests to shut down dialogue.  Don’t you see- this is the real world.  They are rewriting your past.  Rewriting your history books.  Rewriitng your recent memory- today we are for one people and the arguments used to defend one line of behavior, if the person in on the other side of a political issue will be used to defend something totally opposite.  He’s saying- you live on ANIMAL FARM you dumb horse.  Stop saying “Napoleon is always right” or whoever you follow.    Chapter six opens up with the phrase All that year the animals worked like slaves.” – but of course- the reader by this point clearly understands that the animals ARE slaves.     Back to chapter 6- we do see strong historical parallels with Stalins first decisions as leader of the USSR to do these things he called Five-Year Plans- the first one starte in 1928- the plan was to modernize the country and catch it up to the rest of the West- and of course, everyone wanted that.  However, going hand in hand with that was his decision to collective agriculture.  He thought he could increase production by moving to large-scare farms and brigning all the peasants under his control.  Bascially this meant, that everyone would be working for the government- and once you do that- the government did what we all know people naturally do with no competition- they squeazed the people for more work and less money.  The plan also did what everyone knows happens when you make something a function of government instead of private enterprise- the quality and quantity of services took a nose-dive.  By 1931, Russia was living in a famine and millions of Russians peasants died.  Stalin did little to help the people.  It was truly horrible.  Christy, this is something you saw a little bit of when you went to Kazakhstan, tell us about collectivist living and what you saw when you went ther.   Talk about Bread lines, shops, restaurants with no one in them and no merchandise- no incentive to sell when you had warehouses full of stuff and the emergence of the black market.    Of course, by the time I got to the USSR, the curtain and fallen and things were improving.  But what we saw was that things weren’t as they were portrayed to be- or what the west thought they were.  I, at least, didn’t know about all of that.    Well, of course, you didn’t- and this was intentional and something Orwell showcases in Animal Farm.  In chapter 7, what we have is  Orwell’s representations of shortages of supplies in Russia.  But what we also have is Stalin’s deliberate attempt to conceal this from the outside world.  Propaganda now is full-on un-adulterated deceit.  I’m not trying to just slant things to my point of view- I’m totally lying about reality.  We see this with the ‘empty-bins of food.  Whymper, this guy from the outside world, is taken around Animal Farm and shown bins of food that don’t actually have grain in them.  They have sand in them with just a li ttle bit of grain on the top because no one wants the outside world to know they are starving.    Yes, by chapter 7, life on animal farm is horrible.  Chapter 6 is awful and a culmination of every propaganda technique Orwell could fit in it juxtaposed with the most horrific expression of violence he could possibly fit into the short chapter.    Exactly- what we had in history has been called the “Great Purge”.  This took place between 1936-1938.  Stalin executed or sent to Gulag labor camps anyone he thought was a threat- and that ended up being quite a lot of people.  He had these things people have called the “Moscow Show Trials” which is kind of what we see here.  Most experts say that the number was upward of 750,000 people brutally murdered with over a million sent to Gulags.    On the farm, the issue is that Napoleon wants to sell the chickens eggs and they don’t want to give them up.  They try to rebel and they’re starved.  That’s when we start seeing all the propaganda.  Snowball is said to be coming aournd the farm and eferything that happens that’s bad is blamed on Snowball (this of course, is what we call scape-goating- everything is this one person or one group’s fault)-  Once it’s determined that everything is Snowball’s fault- it doesn’t matter what happens, the blame will somehow end up on snowball.  Squealer is going to clearly establish this as a fear technique “Comrades’ a most terrible thing has been discovered.  Snowball has sold himself to Federick of Pinchfield Farm who is even now plotting ot attack us and take our farm away from us!- continue reading on botton of page 71”…history is being rewritten- Snowball is right up there with mr. jones.  This chapter is sooo sad.  There is so much blood shed.  There is so much sadness..but look at Boxer. He draws all the wrong conclusions, as the outside reader can see.   This is cognitive dissonance- “The solution is, I will work harder.”  What abused people always say- if only I had done more.  I will work harder- but the exploiter as we will see, will do everything he can to keep you in that line of thinking- at this point in the story- Napoleon has complete control and he’s not even trying to perpetuate a dream anymore.  He’s abolished the beautiful song Beasts of England and replaced it with this song that sends a totally different message, “Animal Farm, Animal Farm, Never through me shalt thou come to harm.”   Discuss that for a sec,.  - a definite shift from promoting the group of all animals to promoting the state and it’s power.   We haven’t had time to bring up the commandments- by by chapter eight, they have all basically been rewritten.  History has been revised so totally, no one can even remember.  Everyone seemed to remember that at one time there was a commandment that said, “No animal shall kill any other animal”, but now it seems they were mistaken- “No animal shall kill any other animal  without cause.”  Orwell says it this way, “Somehow or other,the last two words had slipped out of the animals memory.”  And this of course is dramatic irony- in the reader’s mind, you’re supposed to be screaming “NO YOU GOOFY ANIMAL- IT DIDN’T SLIP YOUR MIND. WAKE UP- YOU’RE BEING LIED TO!!”  But the animals are not going to wake up.  And if you’re a careful reader, you may even remember that this is a fairy tale- and by this point- you know- there will NOT be a happy ending.  This is no fairy tale.  It’s a fraud. The animals have allowed themselves to be enslaved and they don’t even know it because of their naivite and totally lack of understanding of some basic strategies of propaganda.  Shall we review what these are;   Absolutely- Although I will say, we’ve highlighted some but there are others we should probably mention even if we don't have time to go into them-   But here we go- there’s the use of slogans, flag-waving, “plain folks”, name-calling, scapegoating, assertion, bandwagon, repetition, rewriting history, and most importantly-fear- both physically and psychologically.    All of these- basically getting you to not think logivlly but only emotionally and allowing your decisions to be made for you by someone who you trust. It’s exploitation on a personal level, a community level and here we see it on a global level.        What Orwell defined as freedom of speech “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not wish to hear.”2   The book covers 26 years of actusl history 1917-1943       Secondly of all he uses what we call “Bandwagon” – everyone is thinking this, everyone is doing this so if you don’t believe or do this you’re a weirdo.  For example, if I say, “All cool people like pizza’- and if you don’t, you may pretend you do- because you don’t want to be an uncool person.             Freytag’s pyramid-   Climax   Inciting incident- Jones forgets to feed the animals   Rising action- rebellion is success, animals drive off humans, create animalism,   Battle of cowshed   Quarrel about the windmill   Napoleon sets his dogs on Snowball   First interpretation- chapter 5- when Napoleon ceases power   Second interpretation- boxer’s death   Falling action- the consequences   Denouement- end of chapter 9- animals believe everything and pigs powers is absolute-   There’s a gap of a long time- years later before chapter 10 pigs have same status as humans   Battle of Cowshed- Russian Civil War   Britain and Germany worried about Russia   Britain actually supported the bolshevisk Pilkington- Britain   Windmill- industrial revolution- Stalin promised to lead the Russian into the Induatrail fevolution   He had a series of five year plans   The propagsnda machine was there to convince the people that he was right   In last part- discuss Muriel