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*Editor’s Note: The following memo was provided by a high-ranking and highly intelligent (a rarity, it seems) member of the current American political administration.
The Plan
What we seek is more than simple dictatorship. We are looking for an effective and long-lasting fascism in the USA, of course. What we need is a leader who exerts almost absolute control over the personal and public aspects of our citizens’ lives. We know that the current narcissistic puppet will not do for the long-term. But as we are laying the framework for the future, we must be planning in advance. To get where we want to be, we would do well to consider Comrade Napoleon: the pig in George Orwell’s Animal Farm as a fine example of totalitarian leadership in action.
Many would argue that conditions must be just so in order to realize the difficult dream of totalitarianism. Global context must be headed on a certain trajectory, or the economic landscape must be trending downward, or there must be a sufficient enemy who strikes fear in our citizens. However, when we look at the leadership of the heroic Leader, Comrade Napoleon, it is astonishingly evident that any necessary conditions for totalitarianism can be manufactured by the right dictatorial leader.
3 Keys to a Fascist Reality
Let us examine three keys for successful totalitarian leadership and consider how Comrade Napoleon ingeniously manufactured the conditions for each key.
The keys are:
- ignorant, and therefore loyal, supporters;
- a scapegoat;
- alternative news.
As we shall see, Comrade Napoleon manipulates his circumstance to create the necessary texture of reality for these three keys. Yet they are not distinct markers; there is much overlap.
We must note at the outset that it is extremely helpful to choose as our totalitarian leader someone who is unique, much like Napoleon was the only Berkshire pig on the farm. This gives the leader an air of otherness; some might say superiority. But setting apart the leader as one who is unique ensures a holiness for our dictator that is necessary to quell future questioning which may occur from time to time.
Note also how Napoleon quickly recruited his two most trusted assistants—Snowball and Squealer—from the beginning. Of course, the purpose of picking two is so that one may be used later as the scapegoat. It is an unfortunate but worthy role for one of us to play so that our totalitarianism may succeed long term.
With Snowball and Squealer, Napoleon quickly turned the “Seven Commandments,” which were the common shared creed of all the animals, into a certain way of thinking he labeled “Animalism” in order to be able to change its meaning and contents as necessary. This is a most compelling tactic.
Ignorant Followers
In order to engender an ignorant and loyal following, Napoleon recruited the young and the naturally ignorant to his side: the young puppies and the sheep. This must be done at the earliest possible moment with young ones in order to make them loyal. This also gives the leader an opportunity to excuse himself from some of the dealings of the eventual scapegoat: Napoleon took no interest in Snowball’s committees for he would tend to the young dogs’ education of loyalty at these times. Of course, the loyal puppies would soon turn into large and menacing enforcers of Comrade Napoleon’s edicts. Such force and rule by fear is desirable for keeping the larger populace loyal.
Encouraging the continued ignorance of the naturally ignorant is also beneficial. With repetition and training, the overpowering ignorance of these few can feed the general ignorance of all. Napoleon was successful with this strategy in regards to the sheep as it was noticed that they were especially liable to break into “Four legs good, two legs bad!” at crucial moments in Snowball’s speeches. Again, this method helps to set up the scapegoat for later use.
And, when needed, the ignorant citizens can be retrained to achieve the leader’s ends. Consider the following example: “But just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of — ‘Four legs good, two legs BETTER!’” The successful effect of this retraining drowned out all question and protest at precisely the right time.
The Scapegoat
Comrade Napoleon’s clever manufacture of a scapegoat, Snowball, had wide-reaching positive effects. Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball. From the first destruction of the windmill to the perceived evil of neighboring farmers—depending on which one was most expedient to accuse in a given circumstance—Napoleon’s cry was ever “Snowball has done this thing!”
This has an amazing effect on any slowly growing dissent within the populace.
- When food is short, blame it on the scapegoat.
- When natural disaster thwarts our growth, blame it on the scapegoat.
- When promises made are potentially impossible to achieve, blame it on the scapegoat.
All fear, all disquiet, all uneasiness can be easily and readily attributed to the scapegoat. And the mere mention of the scapegoat can level the most assured of our populace. For example, “I warn every animal on this farm to keep his eyes very wide open. For we have reason to think that some of Snowball’s secret agents are lurking among us this moment!”
Of course this requires that the scapegoat is never seen or, in actuality, heard from. Best to kill the scapegoat quietly. Yet the reality of the scapegoat can live on in the citizen’s ignorant minds, producing the necessary and intended obedience.
Alternative News
Napoleon’s ability to utilize the scapegoat in this continuing fashion, and his retraining methods to ensure loyalty and ignorance of his followers, were both made possible by the flow of alternative news. Here is perhaps the most foundational key to totalitarian success: what is is not what the people must believe. The leader shall decide what our populace believes.
The leader will be able to take any news report and re-narrate it as desired to maintain control and authority. If the rules of the established Animalism prevented Napoleon and the pigs from doing what they wished, they simply added addendums and rewrote the rules. This is a clever tactic of interpretation.
Often Napoleon was well aware of the bad results that might follow if the real facts of a given situation were known. This is why it was vital to be able to prepend or revise the past, restrict the interpretation of the present, or skew the possibility of the future in the leadership’s favor. This affords the leadership the ability to only let the populace know what the leadership allows them to know. The effect is a great discipline and orderliness which should be an example to totalitarian leaders everywhere.
Our Next Steps
We see in the fine example from Comrade Napoleon the genuine simplicity of affording ourselves the totalitarian control we require. Though simple, it will also necessitate a diligence and unending strictness. All we need now do is determine which one of us will be the Leader, which one the Scapegoat, and proceed.