Man or Pig

George Orwell, a well-known British novelist who wrote great classics such as 1984 and Animal Farm. Both books are great, but Animal Farm stuck with me the most because it takes a great stab at society today with less than a page. “Twelve voices were shouting in anger, they were all alike.” His organization of this sentence makes it all more intriguing. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but it was already impossible to tell which was which.”

Today it seems as though the farther the world progresses, the more evil it becomes. It should be that the farther we as people progress, the less evil we are. Instead we hear on the news that a mother in Detroit stuffs her kids into a freezer or some politician in a country half the world away went corrupt. Sometimes countries go to war, or begin mass genocide. But also on the news are great discoveries like a new machine that can help the ill become healthy or a new star being discovered with complex organics within. We only hear little of those, but it seems as though the world is full of people who are no better than animals. It seems as though that saying isn’t fit anymore, because animals are better than most people. Animals don’t kill for fun. We used to say that animals are worse than humans because they don’t show remorse, and do things to survive, because they aren’t conscious about their actions. Humans are. And with that consciousness, humans do little to make us deserving of that conscious. Although people have done many good things, like the Russian navy ship who evacuated dignitaries from many different nations in Yemen where war erupted recently. But what does that matter in a world where one beacon of good doesn’t do much in a sea of bad.

It matters that some people are trying. People trying to do the honorable thing in a place where honor means little now. Although you and I can do very little to stop any crimes or wars being committed in the world, we can still try and add to the good being done. We don’t need to have the be headline stories of rescuing hundreds, we can just save a dog from starvation, or give some beggar food. Those actions can inspire some people to do some great things. No matter who we are, we should do our part to benefit the greater good of the world, or just your neighborhood.