Pen and Paper

  All Animals Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal: The Farm We Live In   A reflection with pen, paper, and open eyes The last commandment on the barn wall, repainted when nobody was looking. I picked up my pen to write about a book written in 1945, and halfway through the first paragraph I realised I wasn't writing about the past at all. In George Orwell's Animal Farm , the animals drive out their cruel human farmer and promise each other a fair life. They paint seven commandments on the barn wall. The last one reads: "All animals are equal." Over time, the pigs, who are cleverer and now in charge, start taking the milk and the apples "for the good of everyone." They sleep in beds, walk on two legs, and drink alcohol. One morning the animals look at the wall and find that the final commandment has grown a tail: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Nobody voted on it. It just appeared, and everyone sl...