From: imbibe@mindspring.com   
      
   QUORA: George Orwell said, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more   
   equal than others." What does that mean?   
   answered by Alex Suchman, 2014   
      
   Time to dust off my old copy of Animal Farm.   
   While the novella is ostensibly a fairy tale-esque story of   
   farm animals, it's really a thinly veiled allegory for the   
   Soviet Union. The animals are led by a pair of pigs, Snowball   
   (Trotsky) and Napoleon (Stalin), who lead a rebellion against   
   the human owner of the farm. The animals successfully drive him   
   out and establish Animal Farm. They agree to adopt the Seven   
   Commandments of Animalism as their constitution. The most   
   important of these is the last commandment: "All animals are equal."   
      
   Napoleon runs Snowball off the farm and gives himself full leadership.   
   He gradually violates more and more of the commandments as his behavior   
   becomes increasing like that of their previous human master. The climax   
   comes years later when the animals spot Napoleon walking on his hind   
   legs while carrying a whip (violations of the commandments) & discover   
   that all the commandments have been reduced to simply "All animals are   
   equal, but some animals are more equal than others."   
      
   Logically, this quote is nonsensical. To be equal means to be exactly   
   the same, so there cannot be more or less equal. You are either equal   
   or unequal. What it symbolizes is the open admission that the ideals   
   of social justice and equality that inspired the animal's revolution   
   will never come to fruition. Through all of Napoleon's previous   
   transgressions, the animals held on to the hope that they could create   
   the farm described by Old Major (Marx/Lenin). This line represents the   
   moment they are forced to let go of that dream, and shows that Napoleon   
   and the pigs have become just like the humans they overthrew. In this way,   
   it defines the central thesis of the book--that the Soviet Union has   
   abandoned the ideas that sparked its creation and adopted the oppression   
   and tyranny of the government it replaced.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)