They call it "Irony"

Freshman class is reading Animal Farm. So, as usual, even though it's a good, deep story and an easy read, the first thing I get today is a whine-fest.

We want to read Arthur! We want Number the Stars! We want to watch Saw III!

They don't want to actually have to read, see. So if I give them the one book they've already read then there's no work involved.

Me: You can't learn if you don't read.

Them: I don't care. You don't learn anything by reading.

Me: In this story, who can read and write?

Them: The pigs.

Me: And who's in charge?

Them: The pigs.

Me: Do you think that's a coincidence?

Them: Reading is stupid.

Me: Was Lucifer God's right-hand man? Did he fall from grace after betraying God and end up in Hell?

Them: Yes.

Me: How do you know that?

Them: It's in the Bible?

Me: How do you know that?

Them: My grandma said so, my uncle told me, I heard it from my priest, I dunno.

Me: But you haven't read the Bible.

Them: No.

Me: It's not in there.

Them: Really?

Me: Really. There's some interpretations of Revelation people use as the basis for that story, but the tale you know is not in there. But you believe what you're told because you have no alternative. Because you don't read. Because you're the proletariat.

Them: What's that mean?

Me: The ignorant masses. The kind of people who elect pigs as their leaders. If you want to stay the proletariat, by all means go to sleep and refuse to get educated. But the rest of us are going to read Animal Farm now.