Behind the economic relationships, Cry Wolf shows the immutability of identity. It’s a little tale about animals, but it could be ripped from the headlines (or the blogs) today.
Immigration is not just another issue. It cuts to the very soul of a people. A polity’s approach to outsiders reflects its entire self-conception, social structure, and way of life.
Remarkably, one of the most powerful recent portrayals of the soul-rotting effects of mass immigration comes in the form of a political fable from Paul Lake, an Professor of English in Arkansas: Cry Wolf: A Political Fable . It was published in 2008 by a small Dallas house, BenBella Books, and as far as I can see got almost no reviews e.g. nothing in National Review. I was sent a review copy, but to my shame only just read it (n.b. at one sitting). It is nothing less than an Animal Farm for the central question facing Western civilization in the 21st century.
The setting is Green Pastures Farm, a peaceful community where the farm animals have learned to “walk in the ways of man” after the deaths of their human masters. By working together, the animals have escaped the horrors of nature red in tooth and claw and are able to lead a peaceful, albeit simple, life where everyone—“hoof, web, paw, claw” lives “on level ground, under one law.”
Their little society is organic, with a smoothly operating natural hierarchy. Each animal knows its place, performs its assigned tasks, and helps out where it can with no ostentatious displays of wealth or laziness. The dogs patrol the farm and guard against intruders, the rooster crows the dawn and keeps track of the stars to determine the planting schedule, the lambs milk the cows and so on.
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