Origins

Origins of Democracy

It was now the time of the rains. We would spend most of our time on the plains, hunting and gathering, but when the rains come after the dry time, we always moved into the cave again. It had been this way since before we had words, even before The One Who Leads was born. It wasn't his idea to move into the cave, though he always told us when to do it. All of us knew that The One Who Leads takes his direction from The One Who Thinks. She is the real power. He is just good at using words, and trying to be in charge. The One Who Thinks has a small group of others that form the group we know as The Ones Who Sit By The Fire And Talk. Their mothers were also the ones who sat by the fire and talked, and they learned their ways from them. Now, as we sat in the cave, rain falling from the sky, we were content. This was a time of rest, and to hear about the things that happened since the last time of the rains. Most importantly, it is the time when The One Who Leads gives us new words.

"One who thinks, ones who sit by the fire and talk, one who makes medicine,old ones, ones who hunt, ones who pick up the things the rest of us leave on the ground, and ones who gather: thank you for coming." he began, importantly.

"Why did he say our name last?" Asked The One Who Is First To Ask Questions.

"Just shows how important he thinks we are." I said. "Not very, by the sound of it!"

The One Who Leads continued: " I would like to start by mentioning the great contribution by The One Who Dressed In Animal Skins, who was briefly known as The One Who Dresses In Animal Skins But Should Have Told Us About It First. His unfortunate demise was the result of an accident, so please don't blame The One Who Hunts But Doesn't See Very Well. It could have happened to anyone. At any rate, we are all much warmer because we can all now wear animal skins, and no one will poke us in the body with a sharp stick because they think we're a cave bear. As a result, we are retiring the name of The One Who Wears Animal Skins, because, well, we all do now."

There was much grunting and slapping of rocks by the tribe.

"I will now give the new words for the tribe to use. Thank you to The One Who Thinks, and the ones who sit by the fire and talk. They did a wonderful job making new words for us. There has been some confusion between the small furry animal that moves quickly and lives in holes in the ground, and the small furry animal that moves quickly and lives in holes in trees. The amount of time it takes to say their names has caused us to miss out on eating many of them. From now on, the small furry animal that moves quickly and lives in holes in the ground will be called rabbit. The small furry animal that moves quickly and lives in holes in trees will be called squirrel. Hopefully this will speed up the identification, and help us to catch more of both to eat."

"How are we supposed to remember all these new words?" asked The One Who Is First To Ask Questions. "It seems there is a new name for everything! When I was small, we just pointed and made sounds like the thing we were pointing at. Worked just fine for us."

Moderate sounds of agreement, mixed with lots of head nodding and shaking.

"It's called progress. We need to give names to things. Sometimes, we need to shorten those names into one word. It's much more efficient. If you wanted to show me the pile of rocks that has white stuff on top that is too high to climb, how much good would pointing and grunting do? What sound would you even make? The rocks don't make sound unless you hit them together. Maybe your parents didn't tell you about the pile of rocks that has white stuff on top that is too high to climb because it took too long. The ones who sit by the fire and talk are working on making names for that now. We should have one by the next time of the rains. I really must keep to the agenda, we have food to eat and I don't like mine with too much fire."

The One Who Is First To Ask Questions grumbled to himself, and made a few rude hand gestures.

"Moving on" he began "We also want to thank the ones who eat new things first. They did a great job keeping us safe from eating the things that will kill us. Unfortunately, we need to replace them again. This is the third time since the last time of the rains. Do we have any volunteers?"

Silence.

"Up until now, we've had many who are the ones to eat new things first. We seem to have run out of the ones who would put anything in their mouth. I'm not sure why that is. At any rate, if we have no volunteers, how will we know which foods are bad for us?"

"Get the ones who are too old to hunt!" yelled the one who leads the hunters. "Or one of the ones who gather? They're right there anyway! And there are lots of them!"

"The ones that are too old to hunt are also the ones who remember what things we shouldn't eat." said The One Who Leads. "They also have no teeth, and can't try all the new things."

More grunts and sounds we made before words echoed off the cave walls.

The One Who Thinks rose to her feet, stepped forward, and spoke. The One Who Leads sat down. "We can not give any one group the job of being the ones who eat new things first. Some of the gatherers have special jobs, such as the tall one that gathers sweet food from the small stinging ones. The one who gathers that can reach in small holes for eggs is invaluable. The one that doesn't scratch himself after touching the fuzzy plant is the only one that can do that. We do have an idea. A new way of doing things, and a new word. We will choose, as a tribe, who will be the next one to eat new things first. There will only be one chosen who will eat new things first. We will use the new word 'vote' to describe this process. Each group will give a name of someone in their group to the one who leads. This tribe member will be voted on by the whole tribe."

Silence again. This time with much looking around at each other.

"Each of us will get a small rock called a vote, and then, all at once, we will each throw that rock at the one who we choose. This will be called casting a vote. To avoid the rocks, they are allowed to run to the tree trunk by the opening of the cave. The first past the post will become the one who eats new things first."

The group gathered in the shape of the light in the sky. The ones who hunt picked their candidate: The One Who Throws A Sharp Stick But Couldn't Hit The Back End Of Boar If He Tried. The ones who gather put forward The One Who Speaks Words All The Time. Others chosen were The One Who Smells Like A Badger, The One Who Complains About Everything We Need Them To Do, and The One Who No One Really Knows What Their Job Is. Votes were cast, candidates were pelted with rocks, and the first past the post was The One Who Smells Like A Badger.

This was good. This was fair. Actually, this was nothing more than an inverted popularity contest, but it was democracy!