Breed The Secret Design To Maintain Racial Inequality Among The Despised Classes (26 page)

Chapter 9
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Humanity has won it's
battle. Liberty now has a country - Marquis de Lafayette

The next few days were marked with intense
celebration. We of course placed troops on the borders of Fostoria
and Lumpenproleteria as our enemies were expected to mount a
counter offensive at any time. I at once issued a decree freeing
all of the animals within the borders of Lupenproleteria and
Fostoria. Upon my return to Fostoria I found out that my newly
freed citizens had taken the liberty of rounding up Truth, Justice
and any other animal they perceived as a threat to their liberty
gathering them in the shelter to await judgment. As soon as they
saw me, the Siamese twins threw themselves at my feet and begged
for a speedy execution. “Please do not exile us from your borders!”
pleaded Truth. “You have no idea what the Union is capable of!
Please just finish us off and have done with it!” “Stand up!” I
ordered. “No one is being finished off or exiled. You are welcome
to stay for as long as you want. You can remain free citizens if
you are willing to follow the laws of the land. But if you want to
leave no one is forcing you to stay.” This news shocked everyone in
the shelter. Rizzo, Chauncey and Bruno just to mention a few, were
among those who had suffered at the claws of the Union. They were
all looking forward to taking out their revenge on the prisoners.
Rizzo exclaimed, “Commander! You mean you’re not going to purge us
of these rebels? This is madness! If they are freed we’ll soon find
ourselves in even worse conditions than before.” Chauncey added,
“I’m afraid I agree with Rizzo, Great One. I’ve never seen a
successful society created without first purging itself of
agitators.” I motioned for silence. “That’s enough,” I replied. I
was bursting with confidence over what we’d achieved. I felt that
at this point anything was possible for us. I turned to address my
citizens. “Don’t you all see that we’re on the brink of something
truly great here? We have the opportunity to be a part of something
much bigger than ourselves. This chance may never come again! We
can go on and repeat the same mistakes that have led animalkind
into ruin for as long as anyone can remember or we can break the
cycle! Perhaps some of you have never made mistakes but I’ve made
plenty. I’m willing to bury the past if you are. In this way I
believe that together we can build a beautiful future for all
animals!” My words appeared to have moved everyone in attendance. A
dry eye could not be seen from any of the animals present and that
included Truth and Justice. Never in my wildest dreams could I have
imagined these two stone cold authoritarians moved to tears but
that’s what I witnessed. Gradually their hard faces softened into a
look of dismay. From dismay to repentance. From repentance to tears
of joy. They began kissing my paws and swearing loyalty to the new
emperor of Fostoria. I of course did not like this. It smacked of
the old way of doing things. I remembered that Lumpenproleteria was
a name given to the occupied lands by others. But these animals
were now equal to those in Fostoria so I decided that a new name
was necessary. I would remove the border and form one large
territory. We went back and forth over the topic of what we should
call this new territory. Many suggestions were raised and many were
dismissed. Finally I remembered a conversation that had taken place
between Vlad and myself. He remarked that my ideas were radical and
then he labeled them with a word I had never heard before. What was
it? Utopian? I suggested to the other animals that we name our new
land Utopia and they readily accepted it. The fact that I was now a
great military leader and my opinions held sway might have had
something to do with this. At any rate one major decision was
complete. I decided that since all of the citizens of Utopia were
equals, they should all have an equal share in all the
decision-making. I remembered the new idea that I had introduced to
my former colleagues in the Union of Animals, that of reasoning
directly with our citizens. With that in mind I took Chauncey Bruno
and Stanley and we ventured out into the land. Our objective was to
make sure that everyone was aware of his or her new
responsibilities and also to find out just what prosperous
direction our new nation was headed in. To my great joy the first
citizen we chanced upon was none other than Molly. She had her back
turned but I was sure it was she. With butterflies in my stomach I
called out to her. As she turned my eyes widened in horror. She had
an expression on her face that signaled she was angry with me but
that’s not what was so alarming. My countenance suddenly fell as I
came to the realization that Molly was heavy with child. Flustered
I exclaimed, “Molly! You’re pregnant?” Taken aback she replied,
“Yes. But what business is it of yours anyways? I heard rumors you
were telling animals that we were a couple. As far as I know
Christopher we are just friends.” I was mortified. I stammered,
“Yes…I never…” Molly continued, “Now that that’s cleared up, what
is this news spreading like wildfire throughout the Union that you
have denounced animalism and are now a speciest traitor? What in
the world is going on?” I still couldn’t get over the fact that
Molly was pregnant. I thought, “This is terrible. My future dreams
are now dashed to pieces… Or are they? She said we are still
friends. That could change at any time. Right? If I play my cards
right we could still end up together… But she will have children
from some other cat… That’s not her fault. I can’t hold that
against her. We weren’t official. Everyone is entitled to make
mistakes. I’ve sure made my share of mistakes.” These thoughts
flashed through my mind as I tried to regain my composure. “No… I
haven’t…Utopia is a true egalitarian state!” In the background I
could hear my comrades whispering, “Who is this?” Another
responded, “It must be his girlfriend.” “Utopia?” cried out Molly.
“What is Utopia?” Nervously I replied, “That’s the name of our new
state. Why don’t you stay here with us for a while and then you can
judge for yourself. You have a family to think about now. Wouldn’t
it be nice to bring up your young ones in a territory free of
corruption?” She placed her paws on her belly and said, “I do want
that. Bringing them up in a world of equality is all I’ve ever
wanted.” Seeing my opportunity to sway her I added, “You don’t have
to give me an answer right now. Just promise me you’ll think about
it.” After some time she acquiesced, with my assurances that I
would do everything in my power to maintain equality. We soon
departed from Molly but I was left with mixed feelings. I was still
feeling the high off of our recent achievements, however the news
that Molly was pregnant with some other cat’s children depressed me
a little. The next animals we ran into were a group of former
Lumpens. I called out to them, “Hello free citizens! Is all well?”
An elderly fox replied, “How can all be well as long as we are
under occupation? You foreigners draw lines all over our land,
steal our resources…” Turning to his companion he continued, “…and
he has the nerve to ask if all is well.” Alarmed I pleaded, “Good
citizen, those days are behind you now! You are now in control of
your own future!” Puzzled they began to look at one another. The
fox said, “If that’s true then I demand more food to eat and a more
comfortable place to sleep.” Another voice cried out, “And I don’t
want to work twelve hour days. In fact I don’t want to work
anymore. I’ve worked enough already.” I replied, “You shall have
all of your rights rendered to you. Remember, you are in charge.” A
look of pride began to glimmer in the eyes of these citizens and
this made my heart rejoice. At the same time, my comrades began to
look worried. We left these citizens behind and continued on our
way. To my great joy the next citizen we came across was my new
mentor the old St. Bernard. Leaving the others, I ran up to him and
embraced him. “Finally someone is happy to see me,” I thought. “Did
you hear what I did?” I asked excitedly. Smiling, the old dog
responded, “Well, I heard something of it. But I’m not sure what it
means. You’ve broken away from the Union?” With beaming eyes I
replied, “Yes!” After a pause the St Bernard asked, “So what now?”
“Now?” I repeated excitedly. “Now we live in peace! Now we
accomplish what everyone else has only talked about!” Gradually the
old dog’s smiling face conveyed a look of concern. “Christopher,”
he said. “Are you sure you know what your doing?” I was a little
taken aback. I was sure that he, of all animals would have been
supportive about what I was doing. I responded, “I’m just doing
what you told me to do.” Confused he said, “I never told you to
start a revolution. All I said was that you had to make your own
decisions.” In anger I raised my voice. “And this is my decision!”
My mentor as well as my comrades was startled by this outburst. To
tell you the truth I was startled myself. I don’t know what came
over me. It was almost as if someone else were speaking through me.
I quickly apologized for the outburst but as I was doing this,
Rizzo came running towards us. “Commander! Troops are being
mobilized near our border!” Alarmed I shouted, “Which border?” To
my terror he responded, “Both borders! Hannibal’s troops are
assembling on the western border and Niccolo’s troops are
assembling on our eastern side!” In desperation I called for a
messenger pigeon. I said to him, “Deliver the following message to
the chairman of this past year’s peace conference. A new nation has
been born from the ruins of Fostoria and Lumpenproleteria. The name
of this nation is Utopia. Its citizens are peaceful animals. We
want nothing more but to live in peace with our neighbors.
Unfortunately this peace is being threatened by the unprovoked
aggression of Cuyamonga to the west and the Union of Animals to the
east. We call on the world to help us prevent this situation from
spiraling out of control.” After dismissing the messenger I then
ordered Chauncey to gather as many animals as he could round up to
reinforce the troops on the eastern side of Utopia. I gave Rizzo
orders to do the same for the western side. With these precautions
taken, the only thing we could do is wait and see what would happen
next. The next twenty-four hours went by very slowly as the
citizens of Utopia were united in anxious fear over our future.
Finally the messenger pigeon returned to me and he was wearing a
smile on his face. He declared, “The chairman had a vote taken and
the majority of the world recognizes Utopia as a sovereign nation!
The chairman sends his congratulations Commander.” After hearing
this news, our citizens cheered uproariously. I looked over at
Stanley who was now full of hope and joy. I could hardly believe
that this was the same cat that not too long ago was about to give
up on life altogether. Now he looked as if he believed that
anything was possible. I remembered the earlier debate I had with
my former colleagues in the Union. Russ used an illustration where
a single citizen’s mind represented the entire nation. Looking at
Stanley this illustration now took on a whole new meaning to me. I
said to myself, “This cat represents Utopia. We were given
misinformation and pushed to the point of despair but we pulled
ourselves up. And we did it without the assistance of Jeffery
Chambers, Socrates or Zarathustra.” From that time forward I kept
Stanley nearby me to serve as a reminder of where we came from and
where we were headed.

The next few years were a time of tremendous
change. I named Chauncey and Rizzo as generals while Bruno was
assigned minister of foreign affairs. He is the one that I sent to
represent Utopia anytime a conference was called to address world
crisis. During the next few years a number of these conferences had
to be called concerning Utopia because we had our fair share of
crises. For example our first crisis resulted in a famine.
Lumpenproleteria was left in deplorable conditions after the exodus
of Cuyamongan and Union workers. More than half of the population
subsisted on the brink of starvation even before the exodus. Once
the workers left, the inadequate stream of provisions dried up
completely. When this happened, animals began dying in great
numbers. I was confident that if we were organized and acted
quickly the crisis could be halted. After all, there was plenty of
food in the southern part of Utopia, formerly known as Fostoria. It
was simply a matter of distributing the food. I called for a
meeting of all the officials in Utopia, which at this time included
every last citizen, because they all had equal authority under the
law. I conveyed to them the seriousness of the situation. I
explained that their brothers and sisters were starving to death
and that it was in their paws to stop the death toll. Everyone
agreed to distribute the food evenly and I expected the crisis to
come to a swift end. To my bewilderment I found that the death toll
began sharply increasing soon after the distribution started. I
sent my generals with their troops to find out why the food wasn’t
getting to the starving animals. What they reported caused me great
alarm. Instead of equally distributing the food, many of our
citizens were hoarding food for their own future use and some were
even selling the food at exorbitant prices. What is so disturbing
is that they were doing this even with the knowledge that their
actions directly resulted in the death of other animals. In order
to stop the deaths, I ordered Rizzo and Chauncey to raid homes and
retrieve the desperately needed supplies. I would have never
imagined needing to issue such an order in a true egalitarian state
but that’s what I had to do. Eventually the food was distributed
equally and the deaths were halted but this was no consolation for
many. The death toll reached into the thousands. News of this
embarrassment quickly spread to the surrounding nations and the
first of many conferences was called for, as I mentioned earlier.
Before sending Bruno off to the conference I gave him the following
instructions. “Inform the world that Utopia is taking the strictest
measures possible to ensure that similar disasters will never occur
again. Utopia will be divided up into ten districts with ten
governors who will represent the animals in each district. In this
way we are confident that all of the animals will be represented
while at the same time improving Utopia’s efficiency.” When Bruno
returned from the conference he said that everyone was very pleased
with the reforms we took and that they wished us much success. It
was around this time that I began hearing strange rumors from
abroad. It was being circulated that Utopia was going to be
partitioned and divided between Cuyamonga and the Union of Animals.
Even though these were only rumors I decided I needed to take them
seriously so I increased security on the borders. It’s a good thing
I took this precaution too because something unspeakable was about
to happen. This event was so unexpected by the entire animal world
that it is still talked about to this day. A non-aggression pact
was signed between Zarathustra and Socrates. “What does this mean?”
I wondered. As I later found out, this meant that the age-old
rivalry between the two enemies was being suspended. I pondered,
“For as long as any animal can remember, these two factions have
been at enmity. What could be so mutually important that they would
all at once hold off in their hostilities?” I have to admit, this
move by my enemies caused me a great deal of worry. To reassure
myself that everything would be all right I called for Stanley.
Stanley approached me with a smile on his face. He was healthy and
full of life. But just to be sure I asked, “Stanley, how have you
been doing…with your struggle?” I thought I detected a slight sign
of irritation in his countenance but he continued smiling. “Things
are ok,” he said. “Like you said, it’s a daily struggle but now I
believe in myself. In fact I have as much confidence in myself as I
do in Utopia.” This response filled me with ecstasy. My face lit up
which in turn caused Stanley’s face to light up. We were now
feeding off of each other’s joy. “Utopia is going to be just fine!”
I concluded. But just to be sure I decided to check in on our
governors to see how they were getting on. All of the animals
insisted that I be the one to choose the governors. After putting
up a great struggle I finally acquiesced and made the appointments.
Three of the animals chosen, you are already acquainted with. These
included Truth, Justice and the former threshold guardian. The
other seven were animals that I did not know personally but came
with good recommendations from others. In the beginning it appeared
as if things were going to begin running smoothly. Food was being
distributed equally and the animals seemed to respond positively to
the change. We did however run into a snag. As a result of the
famine, animal carcasses littered Utopia and the territory began to
smell. Everyone knew from history that if not taken care of, this
unhygienic environment could soon result in an epidemic. This would
serve as the first big test to see if the newly reformed Utopia
could avoid another crisis. The entire animal world was watching.
At first the cleanup operation went smoothly as graves were being
dug to bury the carcasses. But after a few days strange reports
began to reach my ears. Certain districts of Utopia were being
cleaned faster than others. It was noticed that carcasses were
disappearing even though they were not all being buried. Other
reports came to me that no matter how many carcasses they buried
some districts were accumulating large piles of remains. This
caused these districts to reek and the animals living there to get
sick. I found it strange that I wasn’t hearing any reports like
this from the governors. The last news I heard from them was that
the cleanup effort was running like clockwork. I sent out
inspectors to investigate and they confirmed the rumors. Something
else they reported to me was that the governors were living in the
best areas of their districts and that they were all accumulating
an abundance of material possessions. I was shocked and outraged. I
sent word for the governors to conduct an audit so that we could
discuss the results and figure out where the discrepancies were
coming from. To my consternation I was informed that the governors
were busy forming alliances with one another and had begun
recruiting animals for their own private armies. I needed to act
quickly before Utopia was undone, so I sent out my generals with
their troops and they seized the governors along with their goods
and any animal that had joined with them in the rebellion. Rizzo
and Chauncey had them contained in an area that we used to refer to
as the shelter. This crisis was averted but Utopia still had the
problem of what to do with all of the quickly decomposing bodies
piled up throughout its districts. I was in a state of perplexity
about what could be done. So much time had already been wasted by
the mismanagement of the governors that the solution of burying the
remains before pestilence occurred was gone. Animals were getting
sick and quickly dying. It was obvious to me that drastic measures
needed to be taken but what could be done? It was around this time
that I was approached by one of our citizens who claimed he had a
solution to our crisis. He was a polecat. He didn’t look like any
kind of cat I had ever seen before but he said he and his friends
could solve our disposal problem. I was desperate so he had my full
attention. “You see,” he started. “We have effective ways of
eliminating health hazards like this. However our methods may be
seen as…” He paused to find the appropriate word. “…Controversial
according to modern standards.” I didn’t understand what he was
talking about. “How could a cleanup effort be seen as
controversial?” I wondered. He continued, “What I’m asking for is a
little bit of latitude in regard to handling this matter. After all
this is a drastic situation. Drastic measures must be taken to
avoid an epidemic.” I was in full agreement so I said, “Of course.
As long as no animal is hurt in the process you and your friends
have complete authority to handle the crisis. Just please make
haste!” With my permission the polecat headed off to spread the
word to his friends about the work they were commissioned to do. A
couple of days later the polecat returned to me and reported that
the cleanup work had been completed successfully. I was overjoyed.
The polecat invited me to inspect the districts to judge for myself
the results of the clean up effort. I summoned Stanley and together
we followed the polecat throughout Utopia. I have to admit we were
very impressed with the work that was done. The place looked even
better than it had before the crisis occurred. We couldn’t help but
wonder among ourselves if there was any animal civilization that
looked even half as good as Utopia looked at that moment. However
our joy was short lived because there was an abomination that
awaited us in the center square of Utopia. I could feel my eyes
bulge out of my head as we approached the abomination. Hundreds of
raccoons, opossums, polecats and vultures were proudly standing in
front of a mountain of bones, which towered high into the sky. The
majority of the workers stood smiling from ear to ear in
anticipation of their assured accolades. However some of the
workers, most notably the Vultures, were perched on top of the
monstrosity licking the bones clean of any remains that may have
been overlooked. I was livid. “What is this?” I shouted. “What have
you done?” The polecat that I had contracted the job to, came
forward. “We did what needed to be done. We’ve saved Utopia from a
biological disaster.” Indignantly I responded. “These aren’t the
predomestic days! You’re aware of the prohibition placed on all
domestic lands about eating flesh. What happened to the promises
you made me about causing no harm?” The polecat passively
responded, “But sir, we caused no harm. I assure you that all of
the animals were dead before we started feeding. They didn’t feel a
thing. As regards the standards of domestication, let’s not be
naïve. All of the great domesticated lands resort to drastic
measures during times of crisis.” I was at a loss for words. “If
this gets out…” I started. But the polecat discreetly interrupted
me. “It won’t get out. My friends and I are nothing if not
discreet. Don’t worry. You can count on us to keep this quiet.”
After regaining my composure I ordered the bones to be removed and
hidden. Stanley and I hurriedly took our leave of the workers in
disgust. Along the road I was suddenly overcome with anxiety and I
collapsed into a sitting position. Stanley rushed over to me.
“Christopher! Are you alright?” All at once in frenzy I leaped on
my paws and stood erect. I grabbed Stanley by the whiskers with
both of my paws in the same way Russ had done to Aaron earlier in
our story. I peered into his yellowish-green eyes with anxious
intensity. As my gaze widened I realized that Stanley had a nervous
smile on his face. This in turn caused me to smile and to feel more
at ease. I released my friend apologetically. “I’m sorry,” I
pleaded. “I really don’t know what just came over me.” Stanley
responded, “That’s ok. I think I understand your state of mind.”
For the remainder of the way home neither of us spoke again of my
unusual behavior.