Mr. Jones owns the Manor Farm. His animals, including pigs, horses, cows, sheep, a donkey, geese, chickens and some dogs and a cat (and many others) decide they don’t want to be oppressed by humans any longer and they rebel, throwing out Mr. Jones, his wife and all the human farm hands.

The animals are free to live their own lives as they see fit. At first, they delve into their work with vigor and enthusiasm. They create a philosophy called Animalism, along with Seven Commandments that are designed to guide them in their society. All goes well for a while, until some rivalries arise among their leaders.

Animal Farm is a fable that can be read in just a few hours. In this story, animals think, talk and feel. It’s the best fable I have ever read.

Orwell wrote this book in 1943 – 1944, and it created quite a controversy in England because it was seen as a mockery of Stalin and his regime. To me, having recently read a number of books about Hitler and the Nazis, I took it as a fitting criticism of Hitler’s reign. Of course, there are so many parallels between Stalin and Hitler that makes it easy to choose one of the two to think about while reading.

Animal Farm should be required reading on the first day for anyone in any elected office.

How about Kim Jung Un in today’s world? I wonder if he ever read Animal Farm?

He needs to. Oink, oink.