Is There No Hope?

Animal Farm: striving for a utopia results in conditions even worse than before.

1984: the utopia created is really no kind of paradise.

Is there nothing that can be done? Do we lose all hope in ever obtaining a future better than what we have today? Should we maybe avoid such results by avoiding utopias altogether?

In our world, with human nature as it is, I don't believe that we can ever achieve anything even close to a utopia. But I also don't think we should give up hope just because it can never happen. If we were to avoid utopias, we could never move forward into a better world. Breaking away from England and forming a democracy was one step towards a utopia. Most people in America believe that a democracy is a better form of government than a dictatorship or monarchy, therefore it is more of a utopia than what we had before. Striving for a utopia helped us to move forward and create better lives for ourselves. If we had decided to avoid it because we were scared of the consequences, it never would have happened. We'd still be under the rule of some king or queen across the ocean. We might not have even made it over here for fear of where it might lead. So, yeah, I believe that we should strive for a utopia even though we know it can never be achieved. You never really know what will happen until you try, and you will never get anywhere if you never try. So try. Dare to fail. And if you do fail, try again, and again, and again, until you finally make progress, even if it is just a baby step. At least you'll know you tried and something came of it.

1984- Big Brother is Watching You

Has the government in 1984 accomplished what it wanted? Yes, the middle class set themselves above those who had ruled them. Yes, they have made it impossible to rout them. Theirs will be the ruling government, possibly for the rest of time. How could they ever be defeated? But is this really any kind of a utopia? Everyone, even government officials are subject to their own laws. They have to delude themselves into believing lies to be truth, and then delude themselves into believing that they aren't doing it. Doublethink. What have they gained by making such a government? This is a government where only those who are completely deluded can be happy. There can be no advancement. All joy and individuality is taken away. Some people higher up might live slightly better than those below them, but only by a small margin. The only people in this type of government that can ever be truly happy are those who are too poor to be of any significance, the lower class. In this case, the proles. They can find joy in simple things, yet they are poor and scared and can do nothing about their station in life. Many of them live extremely hard lives, yet are they better off than those who work for the government? Is Big Brother really such a great thing? It unites people, but it locks them in a cage full of strangers, people they can never trust. You can't even truly trust yourself. And these things apply to everyone that follows Big Brother. Is this really such a great way to live? Is Big Brother really the best option?

1984- The Beginning of the End

So the novel begins in the middle of a society completely different from ours. The government has complete control. There is even such a thing as thoughtcrime!! So, since this unit is kind of about utopias, where does the utopia come in in 1984? Really, you need to know how such a society got started. In the past it had always been that the middle class would find some way to boot the upper class out and take their place. The upper class would then become the middle class, and in time would find a way to take the upper hand again. This cycle would go on and on with no end, until one group figured out a way to keep the other from getting the upper hand again. So the middle class finally found a way of obtaining power and of keeping the middle class from ever seizing it back again. This would be their idea of a utopia. They would be at the top and it could never be taken from them again. Not everyone would be equal, but this was their idea of a perfect world, a world where they would hold the power forever.

How did they succeed? For the most part, they used fear. Fear that the government would kill you if you went against them. Fear of people in Eurasia or Eastasia because they are different. Fear of being turned in by a friend or acquaintance. Fear that your own children would turn you in. You couldn't trust anyone because you didn't know if they were an agent of the government who would have you arrested for having the wrong facial expression or having an unconscious nervous habit. You couldn't even trust your own children because they have grown up trained by the government and might turn you in for talking in your sleep. How can you start up any kind of resistance when you have no one you can trust? One single man acting completely alone cannot bring a government to its knees. The middle class had succeeded in gaining power and making it impossible for anyone else to take it ever again.

Animal Farm

So, to summarize, the animals try to create a utopia because they feel oppressed by Jones, the owner of Manor Farm. They are worked hard and don't get to keep the fruits of their labors. They are given what they need to be relatively comfortable, but no more. So they rise up in a rebellion and run Jones off the farm. Then the pigs take charge of trying to organize everything so that the newly named Animal Farm can run smoothly. At first, things seem perfect. Everyone does their share of the work and they get to keep everything. But eventually the pigs start gaining more control and the animals are not smart enough to realize what is happening. The animals' rations are lowered, young dogs are taken to be guards for the pigs, the pigs begin trading with humans and making themselves exceptions to the commandments of Animal Farm, and animals are slaughtered for treason. The pigs eventually gain total control and the other animals' conditions are even worse than they were under Jones.

So what does this say for my big question? Strive for a utopia or avoid it? The animals tried to create a utopia and it worked for a time, until the pigs decided to take matters into their own hands. In the end, the conditions were worse than before. So wouldn't it have been better if they had just continued under Jones? If the pigs hadn't been there, the other animals would have been too ignorant to try seizing power themselves, so the utopia might have worked, but if the pigs weren't there, the rebellion probably would have failed anyway, or not have even happened, because the other animals wouldn't have been smart enough to make it work. But if they avoided it, wouldn't they have kept on believing that they could never achieve their dreams, that nothing could ever be done about humans ruling over animals, and that their position was hopeless? If they tried avoiding a utopia, they would never even try to better their conditions because it would be starting on the path to something they're trying to avoid. Rather than crush their dreams before even attempting them, I tend to stand on the philosophy of it's better to try and fail than to have never tried at all. Even if they couldn't achieve a utopia, they might have been able to make life a little more bearable.