Government fear tactics reminiscent of Animal Farm

January 16, 2006 —

George Orwell's classic 1946 book Animal Farm tells the story of a group of farm animals who desire to create a utopian society but instead fall victim to slavery and fear after their leader becomes corrupt with power. The leader, a pig aptly named Napoleon, uses deception to keep the other animals under his control and fills them with fear by frequently telling them their previous owner is preparing an attack.

The premise may sound familiar to some since the story is required reading in many high schools. But for those feeling a sense of deja vu who have yet to read the text, it may be because Americans need not look any further than 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to find a deceitful leader who uses fear to control citizens.

The latest news out of Washington is that President Bush and the NSA have been secretly monitoring Americans' phone conversations without a warrant and can supposedly get away with it as long as one of the parties is outside of the United States. Supposedly, he's looking out for our interests.

Napoleon the pig kept the animals of Animal Farm frightened to control them. Since 9/11, Bush has been pumping American heads full of weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda and Osama. The United States even has a nifty little Terror-Alert Chart with color coding. And for those technologically savvy individuals, one can even visit www.terror-alert.com to get the color of the day posted on your Web site and to get e-mail alerts whenever the status changes. Currently, we stand at a yellow, meaning there is a "significant chance of terrorist attacks." Even the second most desirable color calls for a "general risk," making the system that gauges the risk of attack against our country only slightly more complex than a weather forecast.

At no point since 9/11 have I felt scared in my own home. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were horrific but should not influence how we live our lives. Terror alert e-mails are unnecessary and government spying feels like the novel 1984 another of Orwell's classics. But Orwell's Napoleon knew he could not have the same level of power without fear and Bush knows it too. That's why Americans are dying every day in Iraq looking for WMDs that never existed. It's also why phone conversations and who knows what else are being monitored.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." That is exactly the situation we are facing right now with President Bush. American citizens cannot stand for such things even if it is supposedly in our best interest.

I recently came across something on FoxNews.com titled a "Terror Survival Handbook." It contains common tips for emergency situations like having bottled water and flashlights. While these tips could be used for anything from fires to hurricanes, the "Handbook" utilizes such phrases as "Power may fail after an explosion," calls airports "targets for attack" and suggests that people consider changing their work schedule to avoid peak transit hours since, "Terrorists are most likely to attack at these times." I was saddened to see that the greatest country in the world has come to this, and it reminded me of the TV footage I have seen of children huddled under school desks during bomb drills. The handbook even asks every day citizens to look out for potential terrorism and pay attention for people putting things in mailboxes and walking off. Before 9/11, such activity was called "sending mail," not terrorism. But the pig knows that scared people are a submissive people so paranoia is the name of the game.

The one suggestion in the handbook that seemed particularly absurd is the one that suggested avoiding things that would give the appearance of an American when traveling over seas and to avoid clothes with wording or logos to keep a low profile. It's a disgrace when the leaders of a country are advising citizens to avoid their own culture, resembling the end of Animal Farm, when the pigs abandoned their natural ways and begin to walk on two legs. At that point in the book, it is said that it was next to impossible to tell the pigs from the humans and the division between the good guys and bad was severely blurred. In a way, everything about Animal Farm reminds me of what is happening in our government today. But at least Animal Farm is fiction.