This is a cliché, which has been proven time and time again. It is all but impossible to handle absolute power honestly and fairly, even when ones intentions begin in a righteous manner. In Animal Farm by George Orwell this scenario is played out flawlessly. Animal Farm was an instant success when it was published in 1945, and has become an enduring classic in the years since then for its clearly understood message on absolute power and totalitarian government.
Animal Farm begins with all the animals on a farm in England deciding they should revolt against their human master. This sounds like such a good idea that they go through with it and eventually run the man off the farm. The pigs being the most intelligent of the animals naturally become the new leaders. However, it doesn't take long before their power begins to corrupt them. The other animals are blind to the fact that their lives are slowly returning to at or even below the level of when the human was controlling them. Even when food runs short, they are persuaded to believe that things could never be as bad as when man was controlling them. .
The fact that Animal Farm was published in 1945 makes it easy to see why it became such an immediate success. The most costly war of all time had just come to an end, and totalitarian governments had shown what horrible things they could make people do and believe. One race of an entire country was persuaded to believe that they were superior, and this caused the unnecessary deaths of millions. Similar ideas of superiority are definitely present in Animal Farm. The pigs begin the revolution with the goal of making all animals equal and the lives of animals better. This idea doesn't make it far before the pigs see themselves as superior and begin to take advantage of their higher intelligence by deceiving the other animals. The pigs go so far as to move into the farmer's house and to leave the work to the other more inferior animals.