“Animal Farm” by George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) First published 1945.
Korean/한국어: 다시 찾은 농장
My chains, new gold watch, made in China / We play ping pong ball, made in China / 给 bitch 买点儿奢侈品 made in China / Yeah Higher Brothers’ black cab, made in China / She said she didn’t love me / She said she didn’t love me / She said she didn’t love me / She lied, she lied / She all made in China / She all made in China / She all made in China / She lied, she lied
Last year I was asked to teach a three-student class on George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” I had read the book, but I’d never taught it. It seemed like a good opportunity to go back to the basics.
The book was just a starting point for something deeper I wanted to get at.
And so it went: every Saturday afternoon between 1 to 3, from October to December. As is so often the case in teaching, the real learning took place between the cracks of the lesson plans. The book was just a starting point for something deeper I wanted to get at.
It was the one time I challenged myself to teach something real about the world.
I relaxed my perpetually tensed jaw.
I laughed out loud.
I let emotion creep into my voice when I talked about the lies, all the endless lies.
I allowed my rough edges to show.
Below are the personalized certificates I presented to each student at the end of the course (real names switched out) and some mementos of our debates on World A vs B —vs C, the one we build—and surveillance capitalism.
To my former students: I hope if there’s anything you remember from those three months, it’s to guard your truth with your life.
Your truth is your life.
postscript 1
Recommended videos to watch from our class, in order of prescience.
I watched Orwell: 2+2=5 in December 2025. So timely it’s scary.
The game that took up several weekends at the end of 2025. I have to get back to finishing the second part of “Ignorance is Strength”…
A moment of cinematic x-ray vision: When Nada puts on the glasses, the architecture of ideology becomes legible: “Obey. Consume. Sleep.”
It’s still one of the sharpest visual metaphors for media hegemony and manufactured consent in late-modern capitalist America. Also the inspiration for early Internet icon Mr. Snaffleburger (“Conform Consume Obey”).
© 2006 Sony Pictures Classics. Scene from The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen), showing the Stasi’s surveillance of playwright Dreyman. Video uploaded by Justin on July 11, 2013 (accessed March 3, 2026). Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Starring Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch.
postscript 2
Modern satire. Sorry I never got to show this to you guys.