The Farmocracy Experiment

Farmocracy Experiment 1 | 2 |  3

In the house of Enit, located in the farm of Jeel, the parrots all roamed free and lived in a large, beautiful bird-house, which they owned and had lived in for generations. Food was plentiful and the climate was maintained at very comfortable levels. That is, until some cats belonging to the Tsin feline group, from the farm of Epor, came to the Jeel farm and headed straight for the house of Enit.

The Tsin were treated rather ruthlessly by some vicious dogs at the farm of Epor, which they had called home for generations. Eventually, these dogs were domesticated and Epor became a place where the cats could live peacefully again. However, the psyche of the Tsin cats had been damaged by the vicious attacks on their lives, and they sought what they could call a “permanent” home. Thus, these cats decided to take over Enit, a house that they believed was home to their ancestors, eight lives ago.

First only a few Tsin cats arrived to the house of Enit, but soon a growing number of other cats followed them. Since the house of Enit was only so big, the cats slowly displaced the parrots, with a combination of cat-tricks and other miscellaneous under-paw methods. One room, then two rooms, then three rooms, until eventually, the Tsin cats cornered the parrots into a few cages connected by treacherous tunnels, with harassing cats at every corner. And lo and behold, slowly but surely, the cats starting dealing upon the parrots of Enit some of the same cruelties that had been dealt upon them by the dogs of Epor! The parrots had become prisoners in their own house, and because the cats were larger and more powerful, the parrots of Enit were relatively powerless to do anything. Life become harder and harder for the parrots, and they became ever more desperate about the prospects of their freedom from the cages.

The parrots of Enit knew that other houses in the Jeel farm were also being taken over by animals from other farms. For instance, a nearby house called Qari, was now occupied by the bulls from a distant farm called Acir, on the pretext that the previous homeowner, a wolf named Madd, was not feeding the inhabitants well. The Acir bulls insisted that they were only there for the sake of the house’s inhabitants, and that the house’s food supplies should be under someone chosen by the inhabitants. After all, Acir bulls insisted that they were on a mission to promote what they called “Farmocracy”, where animals set their own feeding destinies. Though the farm of Acir was far away, the bulls somehow always managed to make (eat) hay in Jeel. They were especially close to the Tsin cats, and had become best friends with them over several cat-lives.

With this background of Qari, and the loud demands for “Farmocracy”, the parrots hoped that they could impress Acir by being “farmocratic” themselves. After all, Acir kept insisting that the “freedom to choose” was the inalienable right for all the animals of Jeel. The poor parrots wanted out, so it was worth trying anything!

As the story goes, the parrots sought their ticket to freedom by having “farmocratic”  elections to choose the parrot that would control the bird-feeding tray. There were really only two parrots that had any viable chance of winning. On one side, you had Sama, growing in popularity by the day, though he was one mean little parrot. On the other side you had Hata. The problem with Hata was that he was too “ cozy” with the cats and the bulls. His unpopularity was further exacerbated by his tendency to steal the food of the other parrots when they weren’t looking.

Hence, the parrots of Enit had a difficult choice: choose Sama who, while being hard-headed, at least appeared honest to the cause and had integrity in matters of bird-governance and their bird-food supplies. The risk was that the Tsin cats, who did not like Sama one bit, would stop providing channels for food to be delivered to the cages. Or should the parrots support Hata, who would continue to get food-supplies by the Tsin cats, but had stolen too much of the other parrots’ food in the past?

Well, as it happened, the parrots cast their envelopes in favor of Sama. And that was the beginning of the parrots’ worst nightmare. The parrots soon realized that Acir and Tsin only cared for farmocracy accompanied by the “right results”. Thus, Acir was fine with the other neighboring non-farmocratic houses, some run by really wild beasts, because at least those beasts were subjugating themselves to Acir. But no siree, Sama was a no-go, didn’t matter what the parrots of Enit wanted. They had made the “wrong” choice and they would have to pay for it. So, Tsin cats disallowed anyone from supplying the cages with birdfeed and other items necessary for daily survival.

As things worsened, and desperation set it, Sama and Hata tried to jointly run the feed tray. But, that was still not good enough for Acir and Tsin. So, Acir and Tsin kept prodding Hata to force himself over the tray, even though most of the parrots chattered in support for Sama. Eventually, hopelessness started to seethe in. The parrots of Enit were not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. The allied parrots of both Sama and Hata started to flap their wings at each other, blaming each other for the situation in their cage, and forgetting the external factors in play. No longer were they thinking about the getting their freedom from cages; instead they were thinking about survival. Circumstances had a strange way of shifting priorities. As the wing-pointing worsened by the day, both Sama and Hata found themselves in particularly difficult positions. Should Sama give up the power that he had legitimately been given by most of the parrots? Or should Hata give up the power that he had really already lost in the elections? The problem with the latter situation was that if Hata were to give it up, then the blockade to the flow of livelihood to the cages would stay, further worsening the already desperate situation in the cages.

Eventually, the will of the parrots on both sides broke down, and they started clawing and picking at each other. As the fighting worsened, Sama and his friends ended up in one side of the cage, while Hata and his friends gained control of the other side. Tsin and Acir saw in this situation, further opportunity in dividing the parrots, so they immediately started delivering food to the side of the cage that Hata controlled. On the other side of the cage, controlled by Sama, they talked about even shutting water deliveries.

So, there it was the parrots’ once peaceful existence now embroiled in its own self-destruction in the cage within their home of Enit, right next to embattled house of Qari.

The Acir bulls watched with some concern. They wondered about the mess that they shared responsibility for creating in so many houses of Jeel. Many in the bull population back in the Acir farm were also starting to make some moos: they wanted the bulls messing around in Jeel to come back home so they could work the land on their own farm. But the head honcho of the Acir bulls, Hsub, paid no attention; instead, he was busy casting a suspicious eye on house neighboring Qari, called Nari. Hsub believed that the animals of Nari were busy making something that would destroy their grass, much like what he claimed about what Madd was doing!