All Animals Are Equal but Some Animals Are More Equal than Others

The quote in the title of this chapter, “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others,” is from George Orwell's 1945 satirical novel Animal Farm. In this novel, Orwell's lifelong mistrust of autocratic governments was focused on Stalin's Soviet Union; in particular the contradiction between an ideology of egalitarianism (everyone is equal), and the reality of sharp internal differentiation based on status, power and influence (everyone is not equal). The novel was an attack on what Orwell saw as the hypocrisy of Soviet communism, which he believed was actually a reincarnation of Tsarist Russia (inequality, privilege, and exclusion) merely under the guise of socialism (equality, tolerance, and inclusion).