Brewster Quit Baking

My father hated liars. His worst rebuke of a man’s character was, “He lies when the truth will do.”

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Author George Orwell also loathed liars. He had witnessed how two malicious, mendacious megalomaniacs, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, used linguistic trickery to lie about “the greatest good for the greatest number,” and thereby manipulated whole nations of people into believing that what government promises to provide them (a promise never kept) isn’t first taken from them. In “Animal Farm” Orwell anthropomorphized barnyard creatures to demonstrate how the progression from socialism to totalitarianism is a self-replicating cycle. He endowed his animal characters with a skill all socialistic leaders hone to perfection: the ability to lie. In this fable, the pigs prevaricate their way into positions of power and disguise their stratification of the farm menagerie by asserting that all animals are equal, even though some animals are more equal than others. The following allegorical story I once read also involves animals with human traits, and shows how such duplicity might play out.

Brewster the Bantam rooster

One spring day, Brewster the Bantam rooster discovered a sack of wheat that had fallen from a passing wagon. An industrious fowl, he decided to plant it. He tried enlisting the help of the pigs, goats, cows, ducks, geese, and horses, but all refused. Disgusted but determined, Brewster sowed the seed all by himself. The crop matured and Brewster knew rainy fall weather would ruin the grain if he and the other animals didn’t reap it in a team effort, but no one volunteered to help. Frustrated, the little rooster toiled sunup to sundown. When the rains came, the harvest was safely stored in the silo. Even though planting and harvesting didn’t appeal to the other animals, Brewster was certain they’d help bake bread that would taste mighty good on cold winter nights. But, when he began grinding the grain and preparing to bake loaves, everyone came up with excuses for not helping. The pig lied, saying that he was a school dropout and never learned how to do anything gainful. The horse reasoned that some might view the benefits he would enjoy as discrimination, and like everyone else, sat around and watched while Brewster did all the work. When the bread’s delicious aroma wafted through the barn, everyone demanded a share. “No way,” Brewster crowed. “I did all the work; I’ll eat all the bread.” Immediately the non-workers screamed, “unfair!”, and accused the rooster of violating equal rights and of being a capitalistic profiteer. About that time, the farmer came into the barn. After listening to the opposing arguments, he chided Brewster. “For shame! You mustn’t be so greedy.” “But I did all the work — I earned the bread!” “Under the doctrines of fairness and change,” intoned the linguistically adept liar, “workers must divide the fruits of their labor with non-workers.” Reluctantly, the industrious little rooster doled out loaves to the idlers. However, it’s a good thing those bums didn’t live by bread alone, because Brewster quit baking.