Propaganda, Gaslighting, and the Breakdown of the Self

We are being subjected to propaganda from across the political spectrum.

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George Orwell’s Animal Farm is one of the most insightful commentaries on the dangers of propaganda and totalitarianism ever written. Unfortunately, its lessons on lies and gaslighting seem increasingly relevant to Americans today. We are being subjected to propaganda from across the political spectrum. While our situation is not as dire as that of the animals on Animal Farm, it is worsening. If we wish to return to a healthy democracy, it is imperative that we nip this problem—perhaps not in the bud, which has already passed—before it fully blossoms.

In Animal Farm, the ruling class of pigs consistently lies to the other animals. These lies begin small, and the pigs at first struggle to convince the other animals to do what they want. Orwell writes that the pigs initially “had great difficulty” in countering the objections of the other animals. But over time, the lies begin to add up, and the animals begin to trust their own senses and memories less and less. By the end of the story, the pigs’ lies are enormous yet readily accepted. In the penultimate chapter, the farm is in famine, yet the pigs have “no difficulty in proving to the other animals” that there is plenty of food and that their senses were deceiving them.