Classics Club discussion

I thought Benjamin, the donkey was one of the most interesting characters in the book. He had so much potential, and so much knowledge, but his refusal to get involved or to “interfere” allowed the pigs to overtake the farm and to abuse the other animals. Perhaps Benjamin's life did not change very much after the rebellion, so he did not feel the need to get involved until his friend Boxer was taken away and killed. Then it was too late. This is a concept I have been thinking a lot about lately. People who do just the “minimum requirements,” or only their responsibility, never going beyond that. But its not even that exactly. I have had a hard time really putting this phenomenon into words. I was working with a family who's children where being reunited on condition that they meet certain requirements. They had been to court and the court order described in detail everything they had to do. A series of small incidents that were not directly the fault of the parents, but could have been corrected by them resulted in the permanent loss of their children to foster care/adoption. Is this the victim mentality? Is it an attitude of entitlement? Does it stem from fear? Or a feeling of helplessness (maybe learned helplessness)? Benjamin was never the cause of any problems, nor was he at fault in anyway, but he could have prevented them.

Another character that I found intriguing was Boxer. He was so full of trust, faith and diligence. And so ignorant. At first I was indignant, thinking that the level of ignorance was greatly exaggerated, the general public is not that stupid. But maybe we are. I have often expressed that I would like to be more involved with politics, but I just don't have the time to study and learn all the points of every issue, candidate or policy. But I don't feel I should vote, so I take the advice of people I trust, or “I have always voted for this party before, I'll vote for them again.” I have also heard “I just voted for everyone that was running for reelection, I didn't recognize the names, so I figured they didn't do anything very bad or I would have heard about it.” Boxer was unable to comprehend the situation, as were most of the animals, maybe the parallel is that we are unwilling to understand.