Nervous

As an English teacher, I occasionally taught the George Orwell novel Animal Farm. Not every year, and not to every class. Over the course of 14 years, I probably taught it to a total of about 10 classes. The novel was both extremely easy to read and filled with levels of complexity, each like an onion that could be peeled away. It was a great novel for students who maybe didn't like reading much (because of its brevity and intentionally low reading level) or for an advanced class when--due to a scheduling vagary--there were a few odd days with nothing planned, maybe a week right before Spring Break or something like that.

In any event, I think I may have read it one too many times, because I think it's permanently affected my optimism when it comes to revolutions. I always worry that there's a worse government waiting in the wings, that the pigs are there anxiously awaiting the farmer's demise so that they can institute something that's even worse.

It's how I feel about Egypt right now. I don't mean to be a spoil sport. I know the United States media, anyway, is pretty excited about the revolution, and every station's nightly news is carrying stories about the wonderful, momentous change, the freedom and democracy that's spreading into Egypt and the rest of the Middle East. And maybe that really is going to happen.

But I can't shake the idea that Squealer and Napoleon are even now training new puppies and writing new rules on the barn wall...