by Kazeem Olalekan
Animals are my friends….and I don’t eat my friends
– George Bernard Shaw
In George Orwell’s allegorical and dystopian novel: Animal Farm, the rebellious animals of Manor Farm (later Animal Farm, then Manor Farm again!), adopted seven commandments which were later updated as circumstances changed. The table below were the commandments before and after Napoleon’s coup d’etat.
Before |
After |
Whatever goes upon two legs is a enemy. |
Once the pigs start walking on two legs, two legs become better then four. |
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. |
The pigs end up thinking any animal who walks on four legs or has wings in inferior. |
No animal shall wear clothes. |
The pigs all end up wearing clothes. |
No animal shall sleep in a bed. |
No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets |
No animal shall drink alcohol. |
No animal shall drink alcohol to excess |
No animal shall kill any other animal. |
No animal shall kill any other animal without cause |
All animals are equal |
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others |
Like George Bernard Shaw, I like animals and ‘the doctrine of universal truths’ mention a few of these. What I thought will be amusing here is to list the animals in my book in the order of appearance:
- Eagle
- Wolves
- Sheep
- Serpent
- Dove
Clearly not as diverse a list as in the George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The question that puzzles me is this: How does the commandments of Animalism compare to the “Doctrine of Universal Truths”?
- The Doctrine makes no pronouncement on superiority or inferiority. Neither does it do enmity. The Doctrine makes no pronouncement on friends or foes! All it does is acknowledge differences and similarities between people. Whether you stand on two or four legs doesn’t matter. You may even crawl on your ass: It is irrelevant! What matters is what you do. If you are a chicken, you need to lay the best eggs possible. The reward follows from that. The slaughter (circa Death), as reflected in the Doctrine (and demonstrated in Animal Farm), is inevitable and not an optional extra, for now at least! The Doctrine makes a distinct pronouncement on the subject of purpose. If you don’t know what it is, then take time to find out for yourself.
What is the meaning of life? I think the first part is consumed by the search for your ‘true’ purpose(s), and the other part is consumed by the need to fulfill that purpose… page 22
- Commandments 3-6 is redundant too! As far as the Doctrine goes, you can wear whatever you like as long as it is helps you fulfill your purpose. Furthermore, you can sleep wherever you like, even in a pigsty! Whatever lights your candle. Infection control may have something to say about that. The Doctrine make no pronouncement on how much you drink or on whether you kill another animal or man! – although I have my personal thoughts on that. The Doctrine is clear on one point at least: “Every action will always trigger a reaction”.
You cannot go around killing everyone you see with impunity. There will be consequences. The nature of such consequences may vary from society to society and eras to eras… page 16
- That leaves us with the last commandment. Are all animals equal? Or do you believe that some are more equal than others? The Doctrine is also clear on this: What do you believe? Because frankly you must believe something. The more you know, the more you believe. “Because it is impossible to know everything, we have to believe somethings.”
So there you have it: you must believe in something…and that is universal! Believing in nothing is a belief system in itself….page 21
When my moment of truth came (…and I described it extensively in the book), one thing was clear: Nothing will be impossible, if I was willing! – Nil volentibus arduum …. you feel me? How willing are you going to be? #discuss
