I remembered the classic book "Animal Farm" which was written by George Orwell (real name, Eric Arthur Blair) which somehow symbolized real life society. Remembering a quote by Orwell/Blair he just said, "Beware lest democracies may become tyrannies." Considering that the Christmas season is near and lechon is usually part of a feast whether it's a whole pig or just a kilo, I thought it might be nice to raise up the issue of Orwell's novel "Animal Farm" where a controversial 1999 film was made, which was too dark and political for children. On the other hand, I like the idea of having something dark and political to at least provoke the mind.
Looking at the whole idea of Animal Farm, the revolution started because of the way that the previous owner, Mr. Jones, treated the animals. The whole idea of a revolution was triggered because of the ill treatment of their owner. The revolution was a success under the leadership of Snowball but there was the power-hungry pig Napoleon. While Snowball wanted to protect the interest of the animals, Napoleon was a power-hungry traitor. Napoleon not only grabbed power but he also falsely accused Snowball of something. In some adaptations, Snowball was killed by the dogs and in the 1999 movie, it's implied that Napoleon had him killed.
Looking at the scenario of Napoleon and Snowball, it's easy to see that the Philippines has a history of power-hungry and credit-grabbing politicians. Napoleon not only chased and had Snowball killed (in some versions) but he also stole the ideas of his rival the uses them to his own advantage. No sooner did Napoleon form the committee of pigs under him where he got worse than Mr. Jones. He had not only exploited others to his own convenience like selling off Boxer the horse (who was now useless no thanks to unfair labor practices) to the glue factory in exchange for liquor. The greed of Napoleon soon caused the farm to fall apart one way or another which is shown in Filipino history.
What is sad to say is that many times, we forget about how in the world Napoleon got into power was also because the animals didn't care, it was in fact a democracy of stupidity and some criticized the critics of Napoleon and all that allowed to tyrant to power. As Orwell warned that beware that democracies can eventually turn into tyrannies. In the 1999 film, the character Jessie the dog said, "What if the pigs are wrong?" and not so many listened to her until it was too late. Besides, isn't it the same kind of scenario you can see that repeats itself in the Philippines? Better think about it.
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