"As soon as they were weaned, Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education. He took them up into a loft which could only be reached by a ladder from the harness-room, and there kept them in such seclusion that the rest of the farm soon forgot their existence."

◼ Why is MSNBC aping George Orwell's villains? - Matt K. Lewis/The Week

In George Orwell's 1984, we find this dystopian observation taking place in the fictional land of Oceania:

The family could not actually be abolished, and, indeed, people were encouraged to be fond of their children, in almost the old-fashioned way. The children, on the other hand, were systematically turned against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their deviations. The family had become in effect an extension of the Thought Police. It was a device by means of which everyone could be surrounded night and day by informers who knew him intimately.

Orwell's Animal Farm provides us with yet another example. In this instance, Napoleon the pig (who is said to represent Stalin) declares that "the education of the young was more important than anything that could be done for those who were already grown up."