Animal Farm, Take 4

You all inspired me to read ANIMAL FARM again. The first time was when I was about 8 or 9, I found it on my dad's bookshelf - Hey! A book about animals who take over a farm! and it was simply an enjoyable story with something of a dark side.
In 9th grade we read it in school, but with an ignoramus for a teacher the first nine weeks, all I remember is his misspelling terms related to the book and getting things thrown at him when he turned to write them on the board. He was not teacher material and was soon replaced (taken away by the dogs, ha). Actually if I were him I would have quit which is possibly what happened.
Back on track: I read it again this afternoon. I cant get past reading it as a critique of Stalinist Russia in the manner in which Orwell intended it. But in that way it is informative. It is a detailed allegory arising from Orwell's convictions developed though his personal experiences of fighting in the Spanish Civil War and working as a propagandist for the BBC's Indian and East Asian arm.
Sidenotes (perhaps I cant get back on track after all): did you know that Orwell was born in Bengal, India? And his father worked there for the opium department of the Civil Service? What exactly does that entail? Did you also know that in 1954 Animal Farm was made into an animated feature film, a project funded and overseen by the CIA? THAT sounds interesting.

So Ive been thinking about what I can say about this book. It's a great allegory, both in the specific way in which the author intended it, but also in the way that alex and huitzi related it to our times. I can distinctly remember when the Bush machine started the spin on how 9-11 should be pinned on Saddam Hussein - I was in the apartment on First Avenue - pardon my French, but I couldnt fucking believe it. It would never fly, I thought. But it did ...and it went on and led to war. Donald Rumsfeld was like Squealer, wouldnt you say? Turning words around, etc. I had friends who participated in protests and marches but for nothing. That war still goes on. No good can come of it. It's like an evil scheme laid by Napoleon.

We've been watching old episodes of Da Ali G show here, and the performer Sasha Baron Cohen points out that "it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic."