Power will always be ethically corrupt- a study of Animal Farm

an essay on power and how it will never be pure

Power will always, always lead to ethical corruption. Some may take longer than

others but it will happen. Even if we can agree murder is evil and charity is saint-like,

everyone’s scale is different. Let’s use the dogs’ attack of the traitors “Four young

pigs... raised their voices timidly... But suddenly the dogs sitting round Napoleon let

out deep, menacing growls, and the pigs fell silent and sat down again” (Orwell 59):

One person may call it justice, another calls it murder.

Most of the animals believed it was a right and just punishment for treason. There

is no right or wrong. Some of the animals found Napoleon evil, others called him a

saint. We are all biased by our opinions and real life experiences. “Napoleon is always

right”, said by boxer (Orwell, 46), is a great example of this.

As for real world examples, let’s consider the death penalty. Some believe murder

should be met with an equal response, while others believe it is “stooping to their

level.” My opinion on this is irrelevant, however Orwell seems to believe that this

crossed the general moral “line” established and used throughout the book. To tie this

back to my core point that there is no right or wrong, consider this: Orwell as the

author wanted to warn us about socialism and how it eventually evolves into

communism and we can clearly see this “death penalty” very obviously violated his

own personal moral code. But if you were to have a socialist (or communist) write the

same book they may consider it a just punishment.

Now I realize that is a hypothetical and does not make for a solid or exceptionally

strong argument so we come to my next point. I have established that morals are a

construct that varies from person to person; ethics however do not. Morals are one

own beliefs and ethics are a set of morals agreed upon by a group. So, while leaders

are never truly morally corrupt or sound; they can be, and always will evolve into,

being ethically corrupt.