About me

Contact me

My research

Courses

Humour

Fencing

Quote for the Day

Home

You've come to Doug Aberdeen's old pages. In 5 seconds you will taken to my new pages http://sml.nicta.com.au/~daa/

World Ideologies as Explained by Reference to Cows

FEUDALISM You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you a glass of milk.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM Your cows are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs the regulations say you should need.

FASCISM You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM You share two cows with your neighbours. You and your neighbours bicker about who has the most "ability" and who has the most "need". Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk, and the cows drop dead of starvation.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the black market.

PERESTROIKA You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the Mafia takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the "free" market.

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

DICTATORSHIP You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY You have two cows. Your neighbours decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY You have two cows. Your neighbours pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

BUREAUCRACY You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

CAPITALISM You don't have any cows. The bank will not lend you money to buy cows, because you don't have any cows to put up as collateral.

PURE ANARCHY You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbours try to take the cows and kill you.

ANARCHO-CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

SURREALISM You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.


The views and opinions expressed on this web page are not necessarily those of NICTA or the Australian National University. Any HTML or image from this page may be copied and re-used freely but must not be sold.
Feedback:Doug.Aberdeen AT anu.edu.au