| POLITICS MADE
EASY: The Two Cows Philosophy
FEUDALISM:
You have two
cows. The lord of the manor takes some of the milk. And
all the cream.
PURE
SOCIALISM:
You have two
cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn
with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all
the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you
need.
BUREAUCRATIC
SOCIALISM:
You have two
cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn
with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by
ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens
the government took from the chicken farmers. The
government gives you as much milk and as many eggs as the
regulations say you should need.
FASCISM:
You have two
cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care
of them, and sells you the milk.
PURE
COMMUNISM:
You have two
cows. Your neighbours help you take care of them, and you
all share the milk.
RUSSIAN
COMMUNISM:
You have two
cows. You have to take care of them, but the government
takes all the milk.
DICTATORSHIP:
You have two
cows. The government takes both and shoots you.
MILITARISM:
You have two
cows. The government takes both and drafts you.
PURE
DEMOCRACY:
You have two
cows. Your neighbours decide who gets the milk.
REPRESENTATIVE
DEMOCRACY:
You have two
cows. Your neighbours pick someone to tell you who gets
the milk.
AMERICAN
DEMOCRACY:
The
government promises to give you two cows if you vote for
it. After the election, the president is impeached for
speculating in cow futures. The press dubs the affair
"Cowgate". The cows are set free.
BRITISH
DEMOCRACY:
You have two
cows. You feed them sheep brains and they go mad. The
government gives you compensation for your diseased cows,
compensation for your lost income, a grant not to use
your fields for anything else. And tells the public not
to worry.
BUREAUCRACY:
You have two
cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed
them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to
milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks
the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it
requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing
cows.
ANARCHY:
You have two
cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your
neighbors try to kill you and take the cows.
CAPITALISM:
You have two
cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
HONG KONG
CAPITALISM:
You have two
cows. You sell three of them to your publicly-listed
company, using letters of credit opened by your
brother-in-law at the bank, then execute an debt/equity
swap with associated general offer so that you get all
four cows back, with a tax deduction for keeping five
cows. The milk rights of six cows are transferred via a
Panamanian intermediary to a Cayman Isands company
secretly owned by the majority shareholder, who sells the
rights to all seven cows' milk back to the listed
company. The annual report says that the company owns
eight cows, with an option on one more. Meanwhile, you
kill the two cows because the Feng Shui is bad.
ENVIRONMENTALISM:
You have two
cows. The government bans you from milking or killing
them.
TOTALITARIANISM:
You have two
cows. The government takes them and denies they ever
existed. Milk is banned.
POLITICAL
CORRECTNESS:
You are
associated with (the concept of "ownership" is
an outdated symbol of your decadent, warmongering,
intolerant past) two differently-aged (but no less
valuable to society) bovines of non-specified
gender.
COUNTER
CULTURE:
Wow, dude,
there's like... these two cows, man. You got to have some
of this milk.
SURREALISM:
You have two
giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica
lessons.
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