Animal Farm 2.0

In the end, the cows took complete control.

Unbelievable, right? Who would have expected those docile cows to take such complete control? To understand this, we must go to the very beginning.

Not to the cows, they are just a Trojan horse.

But to the two wily foxes and their great alma matter, The Radical School of Segregation.

All the other graduates of the school before the time of the two wily old foxes could not complete the agenda of the school, even though they were good in what they set out to do.

They either had scale or vision, not both.

Also, almost all of them had one central weakness. They were not entirely ruthless.

The order prevailed in the forest for as long as anyone could remember, it was not the best of the times nor ever a worst of the times.

Yes, there were times when a herd of bison went berserk and gored the pigs. Another time a drove of pigs went ahead and poisoned a whole herd of buffaloes. A school of piranhas devoured a shoal of harmless fish. A pack of dogs attacked a flock of pigeons. A troop of monkeys bothered a band of wild horses.

These were sporadic, and most importantly were not organized in a sustained way on a large scale.

The parliament of owls, who were the governing body of the Radical School of Segregation kept a close watch on all these happenings and kept immaculate records. This was an elite school. The elite as in not the sense that only a few could afford it. The elite in the sense that only a few wanted to get into this. The school, over the years, gave rise to an impressive alumnus, many of whom had entered the mechanism of the governance, and even ruled it briefly, in short, and often violent regimes. All of them failed. The elephants, the workhorses, the donkeys, the baboons, the bulls, the pigs, the lions, all of them.

It all changed when two wily foxes enrolled themselves and completed their course almost unnoticed. This was their plan from early on. Take cover behind a broader canvas. They studied magic and oratory with greater interest over other subjects like money and relationships.

A grand old Owl once taught them “When a magician says, “Look here” and holds up his hat, it is his other hand that is doing the trick”

The foxes understood a fundamental principle.

Rule by diversion, not just division.

If you perfect the first, the second can be anything one wants.

The foxes infiltrated the ranks and started to implement their grand vision.

For reasons inexplicable, the foxes decided that the pigs should go. Maybe they did not like the fact that the pigs came to rule in the original Animal Farm.

These two are not some ordinary foxes, to go ahead and declare a war directly on the pigs and boars from day one.

If the pigs are to be the villains, the story needs a victim!

The two foxes traveled the length and the breadth of the jungle, evaluating a suitable masthead, one that would evoke an immediate pity.

The pride of lions was an obvious no.

A school of fish was not too appealing, also their dwelling was too fluid.

A congregation of alligators was rejected for the same reason, even though they did spend a little time on the land.

A colony of bats was a non-starter (they wanted their policies to be upside down not their mastheads).

A pack of dogs was very attractive and almost chosen but for their one deplorable trait, understanding love.

The tired foxes reached a meadow and rested under a tree. Lord Buddha achieved his enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. The records are not clear about the kind of tree that the two foxes took shelter under. (The foxes made sure that no records of their origin or the subsequent growth can ever be traced successfully, they erased all their origins, doctored at will. As a result, years down the line, one got to read what the foxes wanted one to read about them)

It sure was their Bodhi tree moment. For here, they gazed on a herd of cows, grazing with absolute contentment, regurgitating, chewing, standing still at one place for what appeared to be eons, unaware of what is happening around them.

The foxes found what they were looking for.

The cows became the masthead. But you do not just convince the whole forest overnight that the cows are the victims and the pigs are the villain.

You need to build the narrative. All those lessons on magic were put into action.

The philosophy of an organization that sets out to control should not be logical or scientific. It must be simple. And simplicity is what the foxes started working for, in its philosophy. Philosophy is the doctrine, but you also need soldiers to implement a philosophy. Now that the victim and the villain are frozen, the second round of elections began to choose the soldiers.

The most obvious choice of a pack of dogs was rejected for the same reason that they were rejected as a victim. They understand love. Unpardonable.

A troop of monkeys was quickly decided as an obvious choice. The monkeys also resembled humans, of whom a great many stories were available in the mainland adjoining their forest. They were stupid, easy to manipulate, myopic, violent and are kept happy with scraps, sometimes as meager as a banana.

It is nearly 20 years from the day the foxes joined the school to the moment of identifying the main characters of the narrative.

The monkeys never questioned the logic of the first instruction.

“Kill the cows and some calves”

But the cow is supposed to be the masthead, right? The proposed victim!

“It is not the truth that matters, but victory” said the foxes to the troop of monkeys, quoting one Adolf Hitler, a member of a human race very close to the monkeys than to most animals.

It was easy to kill the cows with some calves thrown in. The calves were a problem, as they ran about, what with some of them being students in normal schools like Just Normal University and the likes.

The foxes resigned from the governing council and went on a forest-wide mission to “educate” the masses. They addressed the donkeys, the elephants, the dogs and all the congregations except pigs. The pigs were not aware of this. When some pointed it to them, that it is strange that the pigs are never seen in the rallies or the meetings, the pigs shrugged it away. The pigs thought that probably this has been a mere oversight and they also maintained a simpler stand “we are not there as we are not invited”.

No one knew exactly when a cow started sharing the dais along with foxes.

Just as no one knew exactly when it became a common knowledge that the pigs were absent.

And soon the cow was speaking more than the foxes, who were content in drafting the speeches and coaching the monkeys.

While the foxes took 20 years, waiting patiently and preparing their canvas and narrative, it took them just 12 years to convince the forest that the pigs were the villains.

It surprised the pigs as much as the rest of the forest.

The parliament of owls stood in awe at the Radical School of Segregation while the mediocre council that ruled the forest did not know what hit them.

Just before the election to the new council, the foxes announced a challenge to the council by nominating their own candidates, all of them cows!

Four superannuated cows were slaughtered during the election rallies. The foxes needed to say nothing. Everyone knew it had to be the pigs. It was easy to target the unprepared pigs. The piglets that were students were easier prey.

The Mother Cow lowed and mooed its heart out while the foxes spew venom that put a cobra to shame.

The victory to the foxes was absolute.

The council took charge and started implementing its devious rabid plans one at a time. Confusing the animals with fierce oration and compelling doublespeak.

The two foxes were not in the least worried about their ability to continue unrivaled during the next council election and the next after that and the next after that because the forest only knew that

In the end, the cows took complete control.

The collective noun for foxes is, incidentally, a leash.