Dado Island. The Superstitious Democracy. Sasha KrugosvetovЧитать онлайн книгу.
What can they do in the end, these much-vaunted parliaments? Nothing but waffle![3] Society ought to be organised in the same way as we here on the ship: all decisions are taken by our Captain Alexander, and above him there is only the Tsar!’
‘Don’t get excited, Boatswain,’ replied the Navigator, ‘that which works well on an ocean-going vessel isn’t very suitable for running a huge island. And on top of that we are guests in this country. When in Rome, do as the Romans do!’
Captain Alexander knew Maidan well. He had a friend here, a large, plump, short-tailed lemur called Indri. He was a charming fellow who liked to wear a striped sailor’s vest and sang to the guitar. His favourite songs were about the sea, the sailors and the lemur brotherhood. And nifty he was, too – he was a competitive swimmer who loved to jump out of high trees for a bet. But in the evening he would find a place to be alone, quietly watch the sun go down and dream about his country’s future. His fellow lemurs regarded him as one of the lads. They called him simply Seryoga.
It seemed that all the forces of nature had conspired to make Seryoga the Lemur as endearing as possible. The other lemurs imitated him. Those with a tail would dye dark stripes into it so that the tail resembled Seryoga’s striped vest. And when Seryoga sang, lemurs of all kinds – red, black, cat-like, sifakas and others – sang the second part to his mighty howl. There was the high clear whistle of the crested indris, and the tender chirp of the charming lori, and the low grumble of the ungracious aye-aye. A concert not for the fainthearted! Those who heard it for the first time, shivered.
And when Seryoga sang, lemurs of all kinds sang the second part to his mighty howl.
Seryoga was the undisputed leader and actively participated in the process of establishing animal sovereignty on the island. He created and headed the Lemur party ‘Society for Peace and Justice on Maidan’ (SPAM).[4] And he led it into parliament. The party slogans were ‘Equal rights for all voters!’ and ‘Eating insects is unfair!’ What noble words! What high slogans! The Lemurs’ policies resembled their singing: a loud cacophony that sends a shiver down your spine but yields no results whatsoever. We shall return to that.
Seryoga, who was an expert on the recent history of Dado Island during the period just before and after the establishment of democracy, told Alexander much about it. You too should listen to a few of the instructive stories about how the inhabitants of Maidan, the island of the most successful animal democracy, lived and solved their problems. Perhaps you will find it easier to understand and more interesting than our dear but dim Boatswain. We shall be kind and not judge him. There was much that our Boatswain didn’t understand. He lived almost one hundred and fifty years ago, when society in many highly developed countries was defined by ignorance, lawlessness, and violence. The world has advanced a lot since then, but even now, and even in our progressive country, we can easily identify many traits that were typical of the ‘feral’ democracy of Maidan Island in the nineteenth century.
Let us begin our story by pointing out that before the establishment of democracy the regime on the island had been a dictatorship of the workers.
The Zebu Dictatorship
Shake off the fetters of the past You slaves, take wings. Then the world will change real fast: Now nothing, we will be everything!
The more immoral the authorities, the greater the callousness with which they destroy plant life. The bulls’ favourite pastime was cutting down trees in order to increase pasture. Large corrective labour camps were established, the main purpose of which was to destroy the forests and, of course, correct the workers.
The dictatorship of the workers was established by the Zebu bulls. As ‘workers’ they defined those animals who were working for the common good: insects, rodents and herbivores. Insects pollinate flowers, thus making trees bear fruit; they collect honey, cleanse the forest from waste and clear away the traces of decay in flora and fauna. Rodents work the fields and collect crops. Herbivores pluck grass and shrubs, thus fostering healthy growth, and enrich the soil. The other animals, or so the Zebu think, are of no use to society. They grow fat on the result of other animals’ hard work and eat their peers, as well as insects and rodents.
The workers’ dictatorship began a long time ago when the great teachers, the powerful Zebu bulls, founded the ‘Workers’ Corporation’ (WORKCORPS). They promised to bring the country genuine animal sovereignty.
The founding bulls were very popular and addressed by first name – Kuzma, Foma, Ilya. They possessed an outstanding degree of personal modesty and genuinely cared for ordinary workers, i.e. insects, rodents, and herbivores. ‘Useless’ animals, such as lizards, snakes, lemurs, mongooses and others, were driven out of the country, with the exception of a small number of those who agreed to cooperate with the new regime.
The bulls took great care to ensure that all were reduced to the same level. They meticulously chewed off any blade of grass, cone or small bush that stuck out from the rest of the row. As a result, the harvest of fruit and honey on Dado Island decreased dramatically.
The bulls declared universal equality and brotherhood. ‘The country must be led by ordinary workers, those who have come from the lowest rungs of society,’ they maintained. ‘He who was no one will be everything!’
However, neither insects nor rodents nor other islanders were allowed to occupy any of the leading posts, with the exception of the so-called ‘nomenclature’ – leaders who belonged to a narrow circle that consisted of the bulls themselves and a small quantity of bushpigs and mountain goats. These leaders were appointed by list.
The great Zebu Founding Bull, the wise father of the working animals.
The bulls allocated themselves the best pasture but, as they were unrestrained and did not think about the future, they recklessly trampled down the very fields they grazed upon. The island became deserted as population numbers fell sharply, but as soon as dissident voices emerged, they were beaten, kicked, trampled, butted, driven out of the country or sent to do corrective labour.
The more immoral the authorities, the greater the callousness with which they destroy plant life. The bulls’ favourite pastime was cutting down trees in order to increase pasture. Large corrective labour camps were established, the main purpose of which was to destroy the forests and, of course, correct the workers.
The emblem of the Workers’ Corporation was a crossed sickle and axe. This emblem demanded that the party members destroy the forests and transform them into pasture. For the education of the young generation and the preparation of a new nomenclature the party founded its own youth organisation, called ‘Children’s Work Corporation’ (CHILDCORPS).
This regime, which should really have been called ‘dictatorship of the Zebu’ and not ‘dictatorship of the workers’, would have continued forever, had it not been for the spite and envy of the very bulls that made up the WORKCORPS.
The great founding bulls fought each other constantly and brutally. From time to time, one of them would go for a walk in a shady grove and for some reason fail to come back, never to be seen again. Things continued in this vein until only one of the founding bulls was left, the greatest of the Zebu bulls, a most modest beast, a hard worker and wise father of the working animals, who was living solely by his concern for the workers’ happiness. And the workers, knowing this, were born and died with his name on their lips.
Time went by and the father bull of all workers also passed away.
The bulls thought about who would be able to continue his work and lead the WORKCORPS. They nominated bulls from the old guard, but they were too old and senile already, hardly able to move and relying on other’s help even for eating. And so the
The world ‘parliament’ derives from the French verb ‘parler’ – to talk. It is unlikely that the boatswain knew this French word, but he intuitively felt that parliament is a place where people are preoccupied with idle talk.
SPAM are useless, unsolicited email messages that we receive in high quantities and that clog up our inboxes, interfering with our usual business.