188. All pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others

George Orwell’s brilliantly sharp political allegory, Animal Farm, is memorable, amongst many other things, for the sentence in the title of this post. In the dystopian society Orwell depicts, one of the fundamental pillars of democracy, the principle that all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law, falls apart, with ultimately dire consequences. This principle is one of the main differences between democracy and other political systems, such as autocracies or absolute monarchies, where the leaders, and sometimes their courts, are above the law and can act with impunity without concern for the consequences that would rein in their subjects. Donald Trump’s political interference with investigations of his affairs with the support of the US Senate, or the flouting of coronavirus lockdown restrictions by a number of members of the UK government inner circle, just to name a couple, are examples of a ruling class in our modern democracies which is dangerously drifting towards Animal Farm 

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