Blog Archives
CAN ANIMALS FARM WITHOUT PIGS?
Animal Farm was published in 1945 by author George Orwell, satirizing collectivism at a time when western countries felt threatened by Russia’s totalitarian communism.
Animal Farm 2 by Martin Knox is a new sequel to Orwell’s satire, from Soviet to modern times, when western countries may feel vulnerable to Russian restoration and expansionism.
The farm animals are on Caruba Island under superpower influence. They have learned English and climate science, to challenge the ruling pigs who exploit them cruelly. They are forced to labour in the farm’s coal mine. When the pigs shut it down, they are without pay and energy. Will the animals revolt again and depose the pigs, who deposed the farmer?
The animals are seeking animal liberation but how would they govern the farm?
On Amazon. Reviews see martinknox.com
CHANGING THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION
Australians will vote shortly in a referendum for alteration of the constitution to have an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. There is no argument for a Yes or No position following. My intention is to draw attention to considerations that do not seem to be acknowledged in the official Referendum Booklet where the cases are compared. Novels I have written expound on three issues omitted from this official guide.
Is the proposed change overreach of Australia’s nanny state? I have presented disadvantages of our nanny state in my novel Turkeys Not Bees. A nanny state can benefit people but it can also lead to totalitarianism. My novel Animal Farm 2 is a satirical sequel to George Orwell’s expose of totalitarianism. The proposal is for more control of our democracy, reducing individual freedom.
Recognition in the Constitution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would increase their collective access to Parliament and Executive Government, reducing relative access of other other individual Australians. A case for Australian individualism is presented in Turkeys Not Bees. The referendum proposes a new social spectacle, described by De Bord, 1967. It could appear to have solidarity within the Aboriginal and TSI community, which could result in exploitation by organisations and politicians, unless checks and balances would be adopted later.
Athletes’ access to government support should be equal for all Australians. Establishing affirmative action by this referendum could prevent performances by all Australians from being potentially equal. We need more Cathy Freemans, not an underclass of performers selected by race. My novel Time Is Gold makes cases for competition and innovation in sport.
In summary, the referendum could affirm nanny statism, collectivism, social exploitation and segregation.
My novels are available on Amazon. Excerpts and reviews are at martinknox.com
ANIMAL FARM EPILOGUE
After George Orwell wrote Animal Farm (1945), Martin Knox wrote Animal Farm 2 (2021), The books satirize political and economic conditions, in a revolutionary setting from 1917 to about 2023, as one continuous narrative, paralleling historical events.
After the revolution had deposed the farmer, The animals were subjected to the oppressive control of a totalitarian regime. It had a pig dictator, a shambolic and arbitrary ideology and fearful animal masses.
A ruling class of pigs runs the farm corruptly in order to live luxuriously, keeping the other animals in penury. At the end of Orwell’s book, the animals are in a hopeless situation.
The sequel by Knox considers a microcosm of their predicament, magnified in a Cold War confrontation on Caruba Island, under pig rule. The Social Republic, which is a pig superpower and a Democratic Union of free nations, manoeuvre for geopolitical control of World energy supplies.
The animals learn climate science and question the pigs’ closure of their coal mine, the only income they have. The pigs use energy supply restrictions to make the workers superfluous and prolong their totalitarian rule.
To divert attention from internal hardship and dissent, the pigs enjoin the animals to invade a neighbouring territory, but they revolt again and oust the pigs. The animals get democratic rule at last.
Animal Farm is a story in which ordinary animals achieve, against the odds, liberation by reasoning, science and bravery. They learn to counter the misinformation of leaders, listening to each other and to elders. The setting is both familiar and dystopian. The books show the fallacy of totalitarian rule. The animals could operate Animal Farm much better. Pig rule is not needed. The animals succeed, in a story both uplifting and humorous.
Animal Farm 2 is available on Amazon. For reviews see: martinknox.com
NEW CLIMATE SCIENCE PARADIGM
Why Blame Carbon Dioxide?
Can there be evidence that carbon dioxide causes global warming? We can see that there is less arctic ice and shrinking of glaciers but the explanation could conceivably be that snowfall in their catchments has reduced. Even if there is warming, attributing these effects to it cannot be tested because causality is invisible and cannot be identified with certainty. Attributing the effect to carbon dioxide cannot be observed or tested directly. It’s too important to guess.
Scientists often establish causality by testing with a physical model. If there warming was observed in many tests and few results were without warming, nor many with cooling, then by the principle of induction the warming could be associated with carbon dioxide, under those conditions. No physical model can be large enough to approximate the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Models could possibly corroborate that carbon dioxide does cause warming (I haven’t heard of any such tests). Even so, models could add their logic to the theory but can never verify it absolutely.
People who use the reduced ice effects as evidence can be deceived by an a priori result, because melting was assumed to cause the reduction in ice observed, a circular argument and false.
Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is not a smoking gun. Warming of the oceans is causing them to release some of their dissolved store of carbon dioxide. Warming has caused the carbon dioxide increase, not vice versa.
Attributing the cause of ice reduction to carbon dioxide with reasonable confidence requires that possible alternative causes are eliminated. The effect on ice of co-products of fossil fuel combustion, heat and water vapour, could also be to reduce it. Alternatively, Earth warming by the Sun has variable solar processes and Earth orbits that could cause warming and melting.
Other science theories, such as gravity, evolution and relativity, also have invisible causality and were adopted before their science was fully understood. Philosophies of science were modified to accommodate these theories. Carbon dioxide’s culpability could be accepted without evidence, provided it is logical, if it is not contradicted and if other explanations are not credible.
I have mentioned several alternative theories of ice reduction. William of Occam wanted preference to be given to the simplest theory. Thermal emissions explain warming more simply than does carbon dioxide. The significance of carbon dioxide needs to be reconsidered.
My coming novel Animal Farm 2 is a sequel to George Orwell’s Animal Farm and satirizes totalitarianism, animal liberation and climate change. martinknox.com
