Farmer, miner, fisherman, politician
This man is a farmer. See him sweat. He is sweating because he is tending his crop. The farmer grows food so all of us can eat.
The man standing beside the farmer is a politician. The politician, too, is working, though he is not sweating as much. He is telling the farmer how to farm. He collects half of everything the farmer grows.
Now the politician approaches a miner, who is digging the ground for gold. The politician fines him for digging too deep.
The politician next finds an old fisherman, and pulls three fishes from the fisherman’s boat. “This one,” says the politician, dangling the first fish, “is your penalty for using a substandard net. This second one is for fishing out of season. And this nice big one is for my dinner tonight.” Laughing, the politician goes home to his castle, for he is the prince of that land.
That night, an elf appears before the prince, and scolds him. “Why do you take so much from your people? Can you not see their suffering?” But the prince smites the elf with his sword, and kills him.
In the morning, when the prince goes about his business of collecting taxes, he finds that neither the farmer nor the miner nor the fisherman has produced anything. When he asks them why, they reply: “An elf appeared before us last night, and told us that working was fruitless, since we are not unionized.”
“That scoundrel,” cries the prince. “I’m glad I killed him.”
“No,” correct the men. “The elf with whom we spoke is a liberal. You killed his conservative twin.”
Dazed, the prince returns home, only to find his castle gone. Only the moat is left, which on that day overflows with the tears of our despondent despot.
Alexander Lee
West Chicago