Muna A
In most work of fiction or nonfiction, there is always an important lesson to be discovered and a significant amount of knowledge to be gained. One of these works would be the story, Animal Farm by George Orwell, whose main intention was not only to show and help us visualize what a society looked like during the Russian revolution but also make us realize that power corrupts human beings -a theme repeated throughout the book. Orwell anthropomorphizes his characters meaning he gives them human like behavior and distinctiveness. To summarize, the story is about farm animals who found the temptation to rebel against the humans who owned them. With effort and optimism, the rebellion becomes a success for them and at this they form a new society. They all decided and agreed to follow a constitution, which consisted of seven commandments. The pigs, who were the smartest of all took charge and, started the first step of their evil plan, to not do any work, while the other animals worked assiduously day and night. Afterwards, the pigs became corrupt as they started taking advantage of the other animals, which in response are loyal because of their lack of knowledge. However there is one animal, a donkey, who is different of the other animals in terms of intelligence. Orwell raises this question of responsibility through this character, Benjamin. One specific night, Squealer, one of the pigs, falls off a ladder and spills a bucket of paint he had on his hand on the floor, the other animals including Benjamin come outside as the hear the noise. Even though Benjamin knew squealer was altering one of the seven commandments he makes the wrong decision to not tell the other animals. Benjamin had a huge responsibility to let the other animals know what squealer was doing in this specific moment because whatever affects the other animals affects him in some way, he can reason and others cannot, and finally he is the only hope they have and if he does not speak up, no other animal will.
Michael Sandel, a very skilled lecturer wrote about the different philosophical ideas that involve human rights, morals, and equality in his book Justice. Three of the philosophical ideas he covers are the utilitarianism, libertarianism, and Kantianism. Applying these three significant ideas on the responsibility Benjamin has is very crucial because you learn a lot seeing different perspectives and what they say about a certain argument.
A utilitarian would agree without a single hesitation that Benjamin has the responsibility to speak out against the injustice for one main reason. First he or she would say, if Benjamin speaks up he will be maximizing pleasure by making the majority of the animals happy, and in the other hand, he will also be minimizing pain by ending the suffering of the animals who work endlessly to achieve a society which will never happen. Someone might argue are the animals actually suffering? Since they do not even realize the pigs are taking advantage of them; additionally they think they are working hard for their own benefit. And if that is the case, how is Benjamin minimizing pain? A utilitarian will answer back, and say we all agree they are feeling pain as they do the hard work, and since they are working hard for a future they do not know, and have no control of, aren’t they still suffering? A utilitarian would think so. Others might argue what if Benjamin is afraid he might get in trouble and risk his life speaking up for the other animals. A utilitarian does not care about the consequences or punishment Benjamin might face if he speaks out, what he or she actually cares about is the welfare he will bring for the other animals as he speaks out.
The choice of whether saying or doing something is Benjamin’s. Whether he wants to speak or not depends on him, therefore it is neither his responsibility to speak up for the rights of the poor animals or explain to them any situation. This is what a libertarian would say if he was asked for his outlook on this situation. Libertarians as described in the book Justice have a tremendous respect for individual rights, they believe in self ownership and freedom. In the other hand, they oppose the idea of sacrificing one’s life to expand or maximize welfare for the majority, believing it violates individual rights. Both these cases could be applied to Benjamin. First, Benjamin has a complete ownership of himself, so if he chose not to speak up it is his choice and no one should interfere. Second, those who think for example, a utilitarian that Benjamin should speak out for the sake of maximizing happiness for the other animals is wrong, because it is against Benjamin’s freedom and rights. Overall, a libertarian would think Benjamin did not had any responsibility
To determine whether Benjamin had responsibility or not in this situation, a Kantian thinker as Sandel mentions, would first examine if Benjamin was acting autonomously or heteronomously as he made the decision to not say anything to the animals. If he chose his decision based on a moral reason which in this case refers to autonomous choice, then he did the right thing. But if he did it just to satisfy his desires and did not choose autonomously then what he did was morally wrong. I have stated before that one of the reasons Benjamin did not speak out might be a fear he might risk his life. A Kantian thinker would object Benjamin’s explanation and say; he did it to for a benefit for himself not because he made an actual moral reason. A Kantian thinker like a utilitarian does not care about the consequences the might happen in the end, what he or she cares is making an autonomous choice.
A society is like a house, each individual self plays a major and crucial part of everybody else’s life. Therefore if we see injustice been done to others we have the responsibility to say or do something because it will soon or later have an effect on us. In the novel Animal Farm a character who holds this responsibility is Benjamin, the donkey. He is aware of every evil step the pigs are taking to destroy the lives of the poor innocent animals including him, but still decides not to say anything. I belief Benjamin made the wrong choice and should have explained to the animals that squealer was altering the laws at the point when they all come outside and find him laying on the floor. With evidence and logic it is very likely the animals would have understood at least that squealer was changing one of the laws.
There is a very well known phrase that says,” If life gives you lemons make lemonade”. What if instead of lemons, life gave you a unique intelligence and incomparable knowledge that those surrounded around you do not have? Don’t you think it is your duty to let these naïve ones know if they are been deceived, because they do not have the capacity to figure it out on their own? This applies to the responsibility Benjamin has in Animal Farm. Given that he has the ability to reason, while the other animals cannot it is his duty to speak out or at least explain to them that pigs are taking advantage of them. On the other hand if Benjamin was in one of the other animals position, for example Clover who is mentioned once in the story that she had trouble expressing her feelings into words. Wouldn’t he want someone to end the injustice that was happening in Animal Farm? I believe he would have been thankful because at that point he will have realized how it feels to be not able to express your feelings. Numerous people would argue and say, just because we are gifted and exceptional, why is it our responsibility or duty to speak out for other’s rights? First, those people need to realize been gifted is of luckiness and there is a lot of possibility that gift could have been someone else’s, therefore they should be grateful that it was them who had the gift. Second, if we connect this to Benjamin’s case, the fact that he is holding an important position makes him responsible because he is deciding whether to save the poor animals or not.
Overall, a society without a responsibility among people is like a house without a parent or a mature person. In the remarkable novel Animal Farm we see a group of animals who form a society like any other in our real world. The corrupt leaders are represented by the pigs; there are the low class workers who are represented by animals like Boxer, and many others. Throughout the book we see the pigs taking advantage of the other animals by using propaganda. For the reason that they are dumb, they are easily convinced which enables them to believe anything the pigs say. The donkey in the story has a very important responsibility because he knows that the pigs were dishonest. If he could have spoken up the lives of the other animals could have been better.