Hopewit

  Poinsetta The death and destruction spawned by World War Two   doesn’t need to be reiterated for those of us alive during that unbelievable debacle and its aftermath. For “baby boomers” and others born after the blood had all seeped into the earth and the rubble had been cleared, a need for education about the facts of the war, the psychology and sociology making it possible can’t be overstressed. Two relevant allegories coming out of that war could be helpful, but only if reading skills are up to appreciating deep truths illuminated by story, like Jesus’ parables, for instance. The first— Animal Farm , by George Orwell—has been taught in schools as an exposure of the folly of Communism. Published in 1945, it’s “story” may indeed have been inspired by the descent into brutality of the Communist Revolution in Russia, but it much more importantly exposes the basic human tendency to sink into self-serving, into embracing doctrinaire ideologies that serve individuals over coll...