Animal Farm - George Orwell

Rating: ★★★★★
17/09/14

Once upon a time, there was a little farm, with little animals that got tired of serving a man, so they formed their own society and most of them ended up being exploited by their animal leaders. 

This may sound like a simple story, but there is a bit more; it is not hard to see. An honest idea that later brings power to certain animals and after being corrupted by that power, they betray the supposedly “lower” beings. Ringing any bells? Can you compare that apparently simple book with our reality? Huh? Can you?! It was written as a critique of another social context, but it does apply to our days.
Anyway, I loved this book. You don't need a difficult, complicated story to deliver a message that can change your point of view on different things. Orwell shows that fact with this outstanding work, a major symbolic challenge. Since the beginning of time, people saw other people being corrupted and taking advantage of other people without education (most of the times, a well-planned lack of education) or economical resources; and of educated people wrapped in elaborated lies said by experts in eloquence (or brainwashing, a big characteristic of totalitarian regimes). 
A lot of "people" in this paragraph...

Politics are great in theory, it just takes a remarkably honest person to execute those ideas without being overwhelmed by power; that is all... You might still be able to have good intentions, but your acts won't benefit the people if they're guided by power. And you may not even notice it, because that is the tricky thing about power, it blinds you and, at the same time, it makes you want to have more. I have read a lot about it, and I see it now. 
Besides the blindness issue, elected politicians suffer from selective amnesia. You know, during their campaign or the first days of their government, for instance, they say something like “no one can drink alcohol”, and later, they seem to forget that idea and make you forget it for real, and add “to excess” at the end of that rule, changing its whole purpose. It happens.

So, in times of elections, when you see all politicians in the streets with a shovel and a smile, bringing you fliers with their pictures and two promises written somewhere; or sticking those fliers all over your window because you don't want to go out because you're in your pajamas and prefer going back to sleep than contemplate the face of hypocrisy, right there; or when they're calling at your house at 10.30pm, scaring the hell out of you because you know phone calls at night always means bad news (like you're dying in 7 days or whatever), and... Well. So. … 
I got lost in my own babbling. My point was: when you see all that, remember this book if you had the fortune of reading it; or read it, if you still haven't. It may help you think for yourself and distinguish men from pigs. Do not waste time. Let's face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. 

With that quote, I just made your day look a lot brighter, didn't I?