Naomi Wolf's End of America and Orwell's Animal Farm

In 2007 Naomi Wolf published a book called the End of America. The book warns that the USA is devolving into a fascist state, and she analyzes 10 steps that are being taken to achieve this goal. She briefly explains her ideas in this article. Wolf has not abandoned her idea, as is clear from this 2014 talk. In 1945 George Orwell published a book called Animal Farm, in which he analyzes the development of the Soviet Union, from the time of the revolution to the terror of Stalin's despotic rule. This book is widely read in schools, and I have been teaching it for a number of years, and it seems to me to be very interesting not just because of the historical context, but also as an astute analysis of power relations, the malleability of public opinion.... this makes it a classic.

It may seem really odd to compare today's America to the USSR of the forties. Or is it? After giving the steps that Wolf presents in her idea it seems to me that this is not as far fetched as we might think. In what follows I will present the steps that Wolf has posited and relate them to Animal Farm (her illustrations of them in the current American context are better found in her own work).

Step 1: Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy. A key element of the Pig's strategy - the external enemy being the humans, and then of course the internal enemy being Snowball when Napoleon takes over. And in this way the whole business of the windmill is eerily reminiscent of 9/11.

Step 2: Create a Gulag. Now, Stalin killed many of his enemies and sent some to the Gulag. America has Guantanamo. Napoleon basically sticks to the more basic approach, so those animals found guilty of dissent are killed on the spot.

Step 3: Develop a thug caste. This is clearly an important part of Napoleon's strategy from the start when he takes the puppies to raise them as skilled killing machines.

Step 4: Set up an internal surveillance system. This is clearly achieved by having a system of informants among the animals and creating an atmosphere of paranoia and distrust.

Step 5:  Harass citizen groups. When the hens try to form an alliance and act in defiance the crackdown is very harsh.

Step 6: Engage in arbitrary detention and release. I am not sure this fits exactly, because not many are released in Animal Farm, however the general confusion and how the rules, and indeed history, is constantly changed creates this kind of atmosphere of chaos and fear.

Step 7: Target key individuals. Snowball.

Step 8: Control the press. The story about Snowball devolves through the mouth of Squealer, the animals have no way to verify the reality of what their only media outlet provides them with so this one fits very well.

Step 9: Dissent equals treason. Again, when the hens do not want to give their eggs to benefit the pigs, their action is labeled treasonous.

Step 10: Suspend the rule of law. Not that the rule of law is ever really established on Animal Farm, the law that they do have is taken and manipulated to suit the ruling elite: Some animals are more equal than others.

...to be fair there are elements to the situations that are very different. The relative affluence of the American is one thing, and there is no 'Strong Man' behind the End of America, but a hidden manipulative and inconspicuous elite. They use the same sleazy methods as their predecessors, but avoid basking in the luxury and the limelight ... possibly making them the most terrifying threat to humanity yet....