You wrote: “Animal Farm is 7th grade reading material.” 

It is a good debating trick, my friend: you bypassed the substance of my claim (which is that socialist tendencies of our politicians might affect how they vote on a pending piece of critically important patent legislation, which in turn might harm Patriot’s position in the free market vis a vis the licensing of its unified patent portfolio, otherwise known as the MMP) and attacked me personally by denigrating the author of “Animal Farm,” I book I tipped my hat toward.

A clever, if sophomoric tactic. It is not dissimilar from calling someone a racist or a bigot. The utterance takes but few seconds; the defense takes several minutes, and people turn away thinking they might be missing an important song on MTV. 

Since we have many smart people on this board, let’s take a moment and unpack your statement, shall we? See if you can follow along. I shall write slowly.

Scholars, teachers, professors, speechwriters, philosophers, etc. have claimed since Socrates was suckling from his mother’s breast that simplicity and clarity are the hallmarks that define the best communication. A cousin of that saying was penned by perhaps the most famous of all playwrights, who noted that “brevity is the soul of wit.” I am sure you can appreciate how those relatives stand together.

Now let me see if I understand your claim: since 7th graders are on occasion taught and can understand Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” a brilliant allegory about the 1917 Russian Revolution and the seeds of communism and central control at the expense of the individual, it must not have any worthwhile meaning or applicability to the real word?  It’s extrapolative value is minimal to today’s political system and how they might vote on legislation that affects our investment?

So if I tell a 6-year-old, “Don’t spend all your money just because you have it; save it for a rainy day,” because he is young and can understand the simple example, the statement has no meaning? Using your “logic,” people 10 times his age cannot get something from it? All the economic advisors, from Warren Buffet to Bob Brinker, must be fools, no doubt.

Perhaps “Thou shall not steal,” “Thou shall not lie,” and “Thou shall not kill,” also quite simple examples 7th graders are taught have no extrapolative value because seventh graders can understand them?

What a fool I have been lo these many years, Placenta. You are right. I want my money back. Like an idiot, I sat for weeks in an expensive  graduate school literature class, discussing, debating, examining, and applying to difference civilizations and political structures the merits of Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” Other Ph.D. and Masters’ candidates participated in this wasteful expenditure of time and money, all under the watchful eye of a grandmaster of literature. Someone forgot to tell the old fool that because “Animal Farm” can be generally taught and understood in Middle School, it has no relevance to the modern world or thought.

And your ignorant comment that I should leave America if I don’t like it: Let me get that straight, too. If I disagree with the road our political class is taking, and voice that disagreement, I should leave my country? Shall I open the Constitution and teach that to you as well?

My only hope is that you are not in a position to influence young people.