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Cry Wolf: A Political Fable

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Cry Wolf by Paul Lake is an astonishing book. Not only is it an unflinching look at the destructive nature of political correctness but it also offers the reader a lyrical story telling experience.

In the tradition of Animal Farm, Lake's story unfolds on a peaceful farm that has passed into the care of domestic animals after the death of the human owner. The animals cooperate to solve the problems of sowing and reaping, defense, education, and the creation of a rule of law.

The first law is that of No Trespassing. Fences are maintained and dogs patrol the borders to keep out wild animals that would kill the farm residents or destroy the vital crops. When the animals make a compassionate decision to provide temporary refuge to a wounded doe, they take the first unthinking step toward the destruction of everything they hold dear.

Cry Wolf examines a number of issues that are eroding our ability to think clearly and reasonably. The stifling imposition of politically correct speech, the reframing of issues, the post modern attachment to ethical relativism, and the descent into tribalism through ethnicity are only a few of the issues woven through Lake's haunting story.

You will not only see the teachers, the politicians, the academics, the judges, and the activists in Lake's book - you will see yourself. That sight may be clearer and harsher than you have been used to seeing in a very long time.

Cry Wolf will have you mulling over the creeping suppression of free speech that is slowly crushing dissent in the United States. It will surprise you with its insights into all too human character. It will entrance you with its prose and characters. It will greatly disturb you. It will do what good books always do - it will make you think.

A must read for any of us caught in the trenches of the war against political correctness. For that matter a wake up call to any American. I think it fair to raise my objections first, but then move on to the praise this book deserves. I am the grandson of immigrants and have taught across thirty years, many of my students first generation and second generation Americans who were eager to embrace what America is. Those who come to our shores and truly embrace the ideals of America, as my grandfather did, and taught me to believe in, then I argue that the lamp is still lit as a sign of welcome. My grandfather was born a German long before WWI, but he became an American, loved America, and died an American, and before he died he taught his children and grandchildren to embrace and love this country. Since our founding America has thrived on the fresh infusions of blood of new Americans, who though proud of the heritage of their past, see in America that shining city on the hill. To them we should all bid welcome. We are not Americans by blood, by race or religion, we are Americans bonded by an ideal of freedom and the founding documents of our Independence.

That said, I will go on to near unstinting praise of Lake's book, though it was hard for the first fifty pages or so to keep track of various characters, but once the "downfall" began, the story became absolutely riveting. I will give no spoilers here, (hate those kinds of reviews!). Sufficient to say that when several of the animals are sent to "Sensitivity Training" to cure them of their "xenophobia" I was truly hooked. . .and as the standard line goes, I did not know whether to laugh or scream. Being in academia I've endured the same, I will never forget a friend, trapped in the same sensitivity class I was stuck in, whispering to me that I was committing "face crime," that my disdain was too obvious to the "professor." It was straight out of "1984", my mere look of disbelief at what I was hearing and being forced to endure, could be grounds for the ending of my graduate student career.

This book will make nearly every reader uncomfortable. It should! There are so many obvious points where the author's characters should have "drawn a line," or "rebuilt the fence" but in failing, and stepping back out of fear of not being politically correct, their fate is sealed. I admire the author's guts for writing this book, for it most assuredly means he will never pass a tenure review in 98% of our colleges today! If you are a parent of a student in college, make them read this book, and ask the questions of what is it they are truly learning in their "orientation" classes, and what "conformity" is expected of them at every turn while you shell out tens of thousands a year. For I believe the battlefield to save what is left of our cultural standards from the fate Lake implies is indeed our academic world. Nearly every scene in Lake's book, (other than outright slaughter, at least physical slaughter) I have witnessed in one form or another.

The author has written an Orwellian novel for our time, here, today, and not just a cautionary fable set in a future. It is about here and now and thus should be read by any who wish to still see America as the shining city on the hill rather than a morally and financially bankrupt. . .(which the squandering of the harvests symbolizes) nation that it is becoming, and in many ways already is.

Sincerely,

Wm. Forstchen, Ph.D.
Professor of History and author of "One Second After"

As other reviewers have noted, this is the Animal Farm of our day. The book is certainly equal to the task. Cry Wolf is both as observant and as entertaining as Orwell's classic. And for 21st century Americans, it is more penetrating, as the evils it reveals are closer to our gates than the Communism that Orwell combatted.

This is one of those books that I lend out freely and intend to buy several copies to give away.

I enjoyed reading this. The author is a good writer; and he has crafted a clever tale that is fun to read. I would even go so far as to recommend this book to others - if for no other reason than for its entertainment value. But I would caution anyone who reads this fable to read it critically. This allegory is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Be very careful, or you might be gobbled up!

Inspired by George Orwell's masterful political fable "Animal Farm", and using the same basic premise, the author cleverly spins a yarn that is designed to allegorically address certain controversial political issues of our day. He does a very good job of crafting a story that frames these issues in such a way as to lead readers to draw the conclusions he wants them to draw. But he does this by building his story on some highly dubious assumptions. I would caution the reader to question those assumptions. Hold them up to careful scrutiny. If you accept them uncritically, the author will lead you where he wants you to go. But, if you reject these assumptions, you won't be lured into the author's snare. So, make sure you're fully aware of these assumptions as you're reading the story; and ask yourself whether or not you really do think they're true.

Since the author has modeled his story on "Animal Farm", it is fair to compare the two works. I won't compare them in terms of their value as literature, since I'm a political scientist, not a literary critic (though, at the risk of exposing myself as a philistine, I would consider both to be "good reads"). Instead, I'll confine my comments to the political allegory. Neither of these stories was written for entertainment value alone. Both were written as thinly veiled political arguments. Both use what seem like simple children's stories about animals running a farm to illustrate the points the authors wish to make. But that is where the similarities end.

"Animal Farm" is an allegorical study of revolution and its aftermath. It provides a clever critique of the (naïve) Marxist view of revolution, while illustrating Orwell's own theory about the revolutionary transfer of political power (which he also discusses, in a different form, in his novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four"). I should point out that Orwell, who was himself a democratic socialist, was not arguing against the Marxist critique of capitalism, only its theory of revolution, which he saw as both flawed and dangerous, leading inevitably to Soviet-style totalitarianism. Though presented as light fiction, "Animal Farm" is actually an important treatise on political theory. "Cry Wolf", on the other hand, is an allegorical polemic about the dangers of immigration and multiculturalism. It seeks to persuade rather than to explain, to sermonize rather than to theorize, to rouse up people's feelings rather than to engage their intellect . And it's perfectly willing to bend the truth - or at least make some unfounded assumptions - in order to do this.

The brilliance of Orwell's allegory lies in the fact that everything that happens in the fable has an analogue either in Marxist theory or in real-world historical events. It doesn't rely on the use of forced assumptions that won't hold up to close scrutiny. For example, in the story, the human farmer represents the oppressive bourgeoisie, while the farm animals represent the oppressed proletariat. When the oppression reaches an intolerable level, the animals (proletariat) rise up against the farmer (bourgeoisie), and drive him from the farm. The animals then establish a utopian "classless society" in which "All animals are equal". These preliminary events are taken straight out of Marxist theory. But the story doesn't end here (as Marxist theory would have you believe). Orwell goes on to show what happens after the revolution: the consolidation of power in the hands of a few ruthless leaders, the rise of a "new class" that takes the place of the old bourgeoisie, and the return to an oppressive system of exploitation in which "some animals are more equal than others". Most of the events in the story are allusions to things that actually happened in Russia in the decades following the 1917 Revolution. Orwell's fable demonstrates that, even if we accept the basic assumptions of Marxist theory, things still don't turn out as the Marxists predict. The only thing that revolutions accomplish is to swap one group of oppressive leaders for another. Those at the bottom won't see any lasting benefits from the revolution. Orwell's inspired allegory illustrates this sad truth far better than any dry essay on political theory ever could.

In contrast to the brilliance of the political allegory in "Animal Farm", the allegory in "Cry Wolf", though entertaining, well written, and very thought provoking, is rather strained. It depends far too heavily on a series of dubious assumptions that are forced on the reader and never seriously called into question. In fact, the book ridicules the very idea of questioning these assumptions. What are these problematic assumptions? Here are just a few of them:

* All animals (which, in this allegory, represent people) are either wild or tame.
* This is a religious distinction: Tame animals are those that have been properly domesticated to serve man (who, in this allegory, appears to represent God); whereas the wild animals avoid man (i.e. God), and don't "walk in his ways".
* The animals outside our borders are wild and, therefore, dangerous. Most of them are sexist, bigoted against tame animals, and innately violent. And many of them espouse a worldview that appears to be based on the philosophy of Nietzsche, or perhaps Ayn Rand.
* Intellectuals are really just very clever wild animals who are trying to deviously undermine the foundations of tame society in order to pave the way for the wild animals to take over.
* At one time, only tame animals lived within our borders.
* Back then, our society was a utopian commune, in which all (tame) animals, regardless of their breed (i.e. race) or sex, were treated as equals, and lived together in peace and harmony as friendly neighbors.
* Though they were treated as equals, each animal had - and cheerfully accepted - a clearly defined social role based on his or her breed, sex, age, skills, experience, etc.
* We had a collectivist economy, in which every animal worked together for the common good, and all animals freely shared the bounty of the farm - as Marx might put it: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
* We have traditionally been a strictly isolationist and nativist society. Our first and most important law - in fact, the very foundation of our society - was: "No Trespassing". However, in recent times, we have carved out so many exceptions to this law that, for all intents and purposes, it is no longer observed. Now, wild animals are welcomed into our society as immigrants.
* These immigrants are responsible for all of the divisions within our society, for the breakdown of the traditional social order, and for the growing selfishness and laziness of the animals within our borders.
* Political decisions in our society are made by majority rule, with no institutionalized protections of minority rights. Thus, the majority has the power to impose its will on the minority. So, if the wild immigrants ever become the majority, the tame animals will be at their mercy.
* The only exception to the principle of majority rule is that a judge has the final say in all matters, and can overturn any political decision or law as he sees fit, with no checks on his authority. If a wild animal becomes judge, he's sure to abuse his power.
* Our society does not safeguard individual liberty, freedom of thought, or freedom of speech; and you can face severe criminal penalties just for speaking your mind. Immigrants and intellectuals are trying to make "politically incorrect" speech a punishable crime, not just a social taboo.

I could list several others; but these should suffice to give you a good idea of the sort of questionable assumptions this allegory is built on. If you buy into these assumptions, then perhaps you'll also accept the conclusions that the author wants you to draw. But if you don't accept these assumptions, then the allegory falls apart, and becomes nothing more than an entertaining story about animals on a farm - worth reading, perhaps, but not to be taken seriously as a political argument.

However, I worry that many people will take it seriously; and that's where the danger lies. Perhaps this was not the author's intent; but this story can be read as a "call to arms" to those who agree with the author's point of view, encouraging them to stand up and fight (perhaps literally, even violently) against what they see as an invasion of "wild animals" into our society from beyond our borders. And, in today's political climate, that's a dangerous message.

As others have noted, this book is an updated "Animal Farm." This description, however, does it a disservice; this is a far better book than AF ever was, and it goes after more difficult and close-to-home targets.

I never cared for Animal Farm; Cry Wolf partly shares some of those qualities I disliked -- basically, it's not the greatest or most gripping of works from a purely literary standpoint, and it doesn't have as much subtlety and development as I would like to see, although it is superior to AF in both of these regards. I would also like to see a bit more explicit articulation of the book's more complex ideas. Nonetheless it is a great work, an enjoyable one, and potentially a very important one.

Those (like Booklist) who identify Cry Wolf as an anti-immigration fable are missing the book's main points and doing it a disservice. While it can serve as a caution against unchecked immigration, it certainly does not appear to be intended to be an anti-immigrant screed. The author's primary concerns lie elsewhere. Immigration merely serves in the book as a key vehicle through which incautious compassion, myopic self-interest, and political correctness transform a virtuous constitutional republic into a degenerate anarchic tyranny and, finally, a killing field. In the process, the author treats many critical issues of contemporary US (and, broadly Western) politics, society, and culture.

This is the sort of important but easy-read book that I think would be at the top of bestseller lists, and would be widely employed in teaching, if it weren't so discomfiting to the left. Its subtitle should be, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!"

I was very happy with this purchase. I received the book quickly to my surprise since most mail to the Virgin Islands takes over a month.

In 1945, George Orwell published Animal Farm, a satirical allegory of Communism -- or more specifically, of Soviet Totalitarianism. The book was received with wide acclaim, and it has endured as an essential part of education (and of high-school English or History reading lists) to this day.

In the venerable tradition of Orwell's masterpiece comes Cry Wolf, by Paul Lake. Here, the enemy is not Communism, but Pluralism, or at least pluralism as it has the potential to become if not reigned in by rationality, discretion and common sense.

Without giving away the twists-and-turns which make the novel a fast-paced and gut-wrenching read, allow me to describe the plot as follows: We are introduced to Green Pastures Farm some time after its human owners have passed away, unbeknownst to other humans. The farm animals, used to domesticity and the way of farm life, come to the realization that maintaining the farm is in their best interest -- That is, by dividing chores, planting seeds, harvesting crops, saving food for winter, etc., they ensure the continued prosperity to which they've become accustomed. Most importantly, the animals realize that their own safety and survival is dependent upon one thing above all: maintaining the integrity of the fence surrounding the farm, patrolling its borders, and ensuring that no wild animals from the neighboring forest trespass on the farm.

Things change one day when a wounded deer is discovered, having taken refuge on the farm from the wild beasts that pursued her. While initially viewed with suspicion, the animals consent that an exception to the No Trespassing law can be made for a charitable case such as this.

After her recovery, the doe returns to the wild. But her presence on the farm set a legal precedent that opens up the farm's borders to immigration and myriad new ethical, legal, economic and societal challenges. In 224 pages, we are brought on a whirlwind tour of isolationism and globalized economies; illegal immigration, migrant workers and cheap labor; naturalization processes and propositions for general amnesty; racism, oppression, political correctness, affirmative action and reverse-discrimination; secularism, relativism, obsession with novelty, post-modernism, deconstructionism, libertarianism; and ultimately, terrorism and anarchy.

As another reviewer aptly put it, "you will not only see the teachers, the politicians, the academics, the judges, and the activists in Lake's book -- you will see yourself." This is the most troubling part of all. In the beginning of the book, you will find yourself sympathetic to some lines of argument, only to find where (if left unchecked) it inevitably leads. At the end of the book, you will feel hurt and betrayed, disappointed and disillusioned, and uncertain of how to fix what went wrong. But the scariest part of all is the moment you come to the realization that our present-day society exists as the farm does approximately 2/3 of the way through the book.

And so we are left with the question: What do we do to prevent the natural progression from occurring? Are the wheels of destruction already set in motion? Do we humans stand a better chance at resisting our natural instincts? Or if left to our own tendencies, are we all wild beasts at heart?

Highly recommended read, especially in these troubled times.

I read 'Cry Wolf' at the recommendation of someone at a conservative web forum. I must say, I'm glad I heeded that recommendation. 'Cry Wolf' is an amazing book which is as effective of a political satire as the book which pretty clearly inspired it: George Orwell's legendary 'Animal Farm.' I earnestly hope 'Cry Wolf' becomes as famous as 'Animal Farm' has, because its message needs to get out to the people.
Unlike the farm in 'Animal Farm,' which was an allegory for the Soviet Union, the farm in 'Cry Wolf' was an obvious allegory for both the USA and the United Kingdom. While 'Animal Farm' was a critique mainly of Communism under Stalin, 'Cry Wolf' is a critique of several things; Identity politics, society's ever- growing obsession with political correctness, and the big issue tackled is the problem of unregulated immigration.
This is a book which takes you on a full range of emotions. It is happy and hopeful in the beginning, as we see the mostly content and efficient lives the domesticated farm animals have established for themselves. Then, as things begin to steadily unravel, things go from angering, to disturbing as you see how much situations in America and England are reflected by the events unfolding in the books, before leading to a finale that is flat- out terrifying. The last few chapters are scary as hell, partly because they are so gruesome and graphic in some of their descriptions of events, but mainly because they paint a pretty probable depiction of what our futures may very well become as a result of the way things are currently going if nothing is done (Especially in the UK).
A further strength of 'Cry Wolf' is that Paul Lake in no way implies that ALL immigration is bad. We learn that one of the farm's dogs, Duke, was not born on the farm, but came there after getting lost from his hunter master, was allowed to stay because he had the mind of a tame animal, and proved to be a brave, loyal, and quite helpful member of the farm's community. Including this further reinforces that Lake is not at all a xenophobe, but rather realizes how dangerous unchecked and fully unregulated immigration can be.
So, to all who can find or order 'Cry Wolf,' (Especially my fellow conservatives), I strongly suggest you get it. Just be careful: You all may very well see a little of yourselves in the characters of this fascinating book.

This is the first "review" I've ever made at Amazon.com; and, after reading the other reviews of "Cry Wolf", there's not much more for me to say except:

It became necessary, recently, to sort through a 55-year accumulation of books and to decide which ones I really wanted to keep when I relocated. "Cry Wolf" has replaced "Animal Farm" on my bookshelves---because Mr. Lake's story addresses today's rather than yesterday's political problems.

I gave "Cry Wolf" a 5-star rating and recommended it to family and friends.

Cry Wolf is a compelling look at the destructive nature of tolerance without being tolerant. This tale exposes political correctness as it often is, a constraint on those that have a true desire for fairness in mind and action, but is not applicable to those with a radical personal agenda. The book exposes what is a trend in current political rhetoric, the demonizing of commonly held traditions and values and then the redefining of terms.

The book is well worth the read and I expect it will not be welcomed by certain factions.