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I recently finished reading "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell and wondered whether the story's warning was as relevant today as it was when it was written. While it obviously pertained to Josef Stalin and his consolidation of power in the Soviet Union, there is also a curious contemporary example that fits just as well.

Egypt.

As many who have read it will remember, Animal Farm is a brilliant story that follows a farm animal uprising against Mr. Jones, their hard human master. The revolt is successful and, as the animals form a liberated socialist society governed by Seven Commandments of Animalism (distilled in the line "Four legs good, two legs bad."), they ultimately fall under the tyrannical control of one of their own, a pig by the name of Napoleon who uses fear, force and disinformation to take control and become the next Mr. Jones.

During the reign of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt was also suffering from a hard master. Freedoms were limited and rights were restricted. Corruption, torture and press censorship increased, as did the number of imprisonments without trial. In January 2011, the people tired of the worsening conditions and, like the farm animals, rebelled, successfully overthrowing the government. With Mubarak behind bars and a temporary government in place, possibilities must have seemed myriad. Though the conditions did not immediately improve, there was a reinvigorating freedom that many had forgotten or perhaps had never before experienced.

This rallied the Egyptians, and they focused on creating a new government, a better government that would cure the problems from the last regime.

Unlike the novella, they turned to democracy instead of socialism, but the end result was the same. On June 24, 2012, the Egyptian people elected Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the farm animals let Snowball take charge.

And just as the pigs did in the novella, Morsi solidified his governing body. On Nov. 22, 2012, he swiftly immunized himself and the Constituent Assembly from political interference, claiming he was protecting the revolution, but this only fomented fears that he was scheming to install an Islamic government. As the schism deepened between Morsi and his opponents, another round of protests erupted leading to an intervention by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was both the Egyptian minister of defense and commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces at the time.

Morsi was unseated and, like Snowball from Animal Farm, removed from power. El-Sisi has since turned the people's focus against those deposed, much as Napoleon turned the farm's attention against Snowball.

Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were blamed for everything from terrorizing the populace to paralyzing Egypt's infrastructure. As el-Sisi executed numerous members of the Muslim Brotherhood and anyone who supported Morsi, so did Napoleon kill various farm animals that he claimed supported Snowball -- all to retain a tighter grip on the remaining populace.

At the end of Animal Farm, Napoleon reconciles with the humans and begins to take on their characteristics; so el-Sisi has released Mubarak and begins to emulate him. El-Sisi was recently elected as president after a rushed election, and press censorship and imprisonments without trial have resurfaced almost as if Mubarak had never left. And so we watch what Orwell warned of many years ago.

The world outside looked from el-Sisi to Mubarak, and from Mubarak to el-Sisi, and from el-Sisi to Mubarak again, but already it was impossible to say which was which. I know it is naïve of me to feel amazement that a book like Animal Farm could have any relevance today and to think that Orwell's warning has been ignored by so many.

Kevin Klesta of Fairlawn is an archivist with a background in history.