688 words, 4 minute read.
Once upon a time in the Erehwy Reve Ocean there lived a large pack of blackfish. They roamed its squid-rich waters and longed for the occasional seal or seagull to spice up their diets. The voluminous seas had plenty for each blackfish family, and more.
But life in Erehwy Reve was anything but idyllic. Blackfish returning from hunting expeditions received barely enough squid to feed themselves, let alone their calves. Sick and elderly blackfish lived in squalor and had to rely on the kindness of strangers. The mountainous ocean ridges were being irreversibly destroyed by brutal fishing practices. And all this in spite of the Orcinites, who had been in power for many generations, promising an imminent move to mackrel-laden deep–sea trenches.
Elections were looming, but the Orcinites carried on as usual, lining their pockets while the blackfish population groaned under the increasing hopelessness of survival. The Orcinites got richer and richer, while the average blackfish barely scraped by. How was that possible, you ask? Why didn’t the blackfish population rebel or simply vote them out? Surely they could see that they were being exploited by their “fellow” rulers.
It wasn’t quite that simple. Yes, the Orcinites were getting richer, fatter and more brazen, running the place into the ground with their greed and bottomless incompetence, but they were also masters at lies and subterfuge!
Every time a scandal broke about how this minister got rich from a squid farm closing down, or that minister ate seal steaks while hard-working blackfish were starving, the Orcinites pointed to the distant, dark waters and spoke the magic words: “killer whale”. They will come and tear us to pieces, feast on our calves; or: they will come and take the few good hunting jobs we have; or, and worst of all: they will come here and marry our mares, dirtying the pure blackfish blood of our ancestors!
No amount of appealing to universal fishness, the biological identity of blackfish and killer whales, or detailed plans about how there would be plenty for everyone if corruption were stamped out, made the slightest bit of difference. Surely, killer whales were not like the peace-loving blackfish who vote for Orcinites? Surely, if we let them in, they would be the end of us. And who can protect us from them? Only the Orcinites – that’s who!
It didn’t matter that the opposition Delphinite party had plans for improving the living standards and wellbeing of all Erehwy Reve inhabitants, that they had clear ideas for a peaceful coexistence with killer whales, instead of greasing the wheels of interminable wars, that they were working towards providing young blackfish with better opportunities in life. All of that mattered little, because they had a dark blemish, which meant that no god-loving blackfish could ever vote for them.
The Delphinites allowed blackfish families to abandon their sick calves.
How could any blackfish with a conscience vote for a party that condones, even promotes, piscinfanticide? Look at us, the Orcinites would say, we stand firm against such unspeakable barbarity! Vote for us and we will protect the life of every single blackfish calf.
What they did not say – and herein lies the tragedy of blackfish and the virtuoso subterfuge of Orcinites – is why blackfish families even contemplated abandoning their sick offspring. It was the impossibility of caring for them, without first destroying themselves, that drove them to not dismissing the thought out of hand. It was the offensively low pay of parents, the lack of support for their calves’ care and education, the absence of healthcare for the sick that even put them in from of such an inpiscine choice.
And this issue blinded them. With the desire of doing the right thing, of supporting the good represented by a sick calf’s life, they turned a blind eye to the murderous machinery with which Orcinites oppressed them and cast their fellow blackfish, the killer whales as mortal enemies.
In the hope of saving the innocent, they supported the systematic destruction of all. And they were deceived ever after.
The end.
eyebeleave 