In the novel "Animal Farm" what do you think Orwell is saying about bureaucracy when he has Squealer explain all the paperwork involved in running the farm?

Welcome to Fluther.

You do know that we don’t do homework, right? And we don’t look favorably on students who don’t even bother to learn that, or who press on regardless of the guidelines.

So… why don’t you tell us what you think Orwell is saying, and start the discussion.

It’s been awhile since I read Animal Farm, perhaps you could find a link to the chapter online, or type in the important parts so we all know what we’re working with?

@WasCy No, we don’t do homework for them, but we do help point them in the right direction, and we can have discussions about an interesting books such as Animal Farm without it being something as unholy as doing homework for them.

I can’t remember that part of the book either.

@WasCy I actually think that he’s saying that people in a bureacracy end up doing almost nothing vitally important in the the business of trying to run it properly and efficiently.

@MyNewtBoobs http://www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/9.html. Here is a link to the chapter. Hope this helps. You might find something I didn’t

I think what you said is part of it. I think he’s also saying that those in the government, with the power, will always look down on the masses, thinking they’re too dumb to understand the complexities of the very important decisions that the government makes. It’s also a commentary on how in a communist society, you have to create a lot of busywork and paper-pushing in order for there to be enough for everyone to do, and that it’s also common to use these papers as a sort of competition – ie who can grow the most grain, who can make the most steel – which then has something in common with capitalism.

I’m just going to paste the important paragraph for everyone else:

Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer-except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs. Perhaps this was partly because there were so many pigs and so many dogs. It was not that these creatures did not work, after their fashion. There was, as Squealer was never tired of explaining, endless work in the supervision and organisation of the farm. Much of this work was of a kind that the other animals were too ignorant to understand. For example, Squealer told them that the pigs had to expend enormous labours every day upon mysterious things called “files,” “reports,” “minutes,” and “memoranda.” These were large sheets of paper which had to be closely covered with writing, and as soon as they were so covered, they were burnt in the furnace. This was of the highest importance for the welfare of the farm, Squealer said. But still, neither pigs nor dogs produced any food by their own labour; and there were very many of them, and their appetites were always good.

I think he is saying that the farm would work perfectly well without the pigs or the dogs ‘supervision and organisation’, but they play on the other animals stupidity to step in and take this needless role to secure a very comfortable position for themselves…people in the higher ranks of society are actually doing less than the workers themselves but keep their affairs mysterious so the workers will think they are playing a very important, vital role, so they can get much more money for themselves.

Orwell was a socialist, and like most of the original egalitarian socialists, he believed that the idea should be embraced voluntarily, sort of like practicing religion or joining a kibbutz.
He was concerned (justifiably) about government imposed socialism, knowing that it could only lead to tyranny.
Squealer is the animal analogue to the proverbial Minister of Information. If Napoleon was Stalin, Squealer was probably a little like Molotov, or one of Stalin’s other spokesmen.