MINDLESS MUSINGS

I’m sure that hunter-gatherers had rudimentary ways of ‘saving for a rainy day’. They certainly would have tried to find ways to survive during extended periods of scarcity. With the extra food sources resulting in surplus supply, they would have experimented and improved on their preservation skills. Thus, their ability to ‘weather the storm’ improved markedly.

I’m sure there were a few tubbies who over-indulged, but they would have been the odd ones. The need for each person to pull their own weight (pun intended) meant that there was little tolerance for people who considered themselves superior who could just laze about consuming (I think we can all see that time is long gone).

I have no doubt there were leaders and certain specialists who were held in high esteem, but the hierarchy was basically flat. Like the beginning of so many wonderous enterprises the vast majority was invested and enthusiastic about its success. When I say invested I mean truly devoted; like their fucken lives depended on it! It would have been a dubious optimist who believed the tribe could survive carrying dead weight.

Of course there would have been assholes. They were human after all. There’s always a few deadshits in the bunch. The point I am making is that these guys/gals had to be extremely cunning about it. Being a drain on the collective was not just a faux pas; it was a dead-set fucking liability. Getting fired from your job here meant you’re out on your arse! Not on the street, there was no street. Off into the wilderness you go sunshine, good luck and good riddance!

I love how I am writing this stuff in a way that seems as if I am sure about any of this.

Anyway, everyone was pulling together like good little communists. They all toiled and shared in the rewards. As time passed and their expertise grew, so too did their reserves. This was an unforgiving environment though, and no doubt plenty perished. Nevertheless, enough didn’t and they continued to learn and pass on the knowledge (you get my spiel by now).

There must have come a point in time when the most successful tribes became so efficient and confident in their farming prowess that the shifty ones started getting ideas regarding their effort to remuneration ratios.

This is the point in my theory where the percentage of shirkers begins to increase relative to cooperators. Unfortunately, that is not the worst of it. This is where I imagine the exploiter becomes a natural member of the group.

Before this time of relative comfort and plenty the best a selfish so and so could get away with was idleness. Now, with the seemingly assured stockpile it was possible to not only slack off and still eat; it was possible to grow fat from the efforts of the group.

Just like a common problem with most hippy communes some members were a little more interested in the free-love and the drugs rather than being productive members of the collective. Except for the free-love, the drugs and the hippy thing this analogy works perfectly. Oh, and the part about growing fat. Okay I probably should have used the alternative lifestyle bit to describe shirkers.

The leeches I am talking about now are not content with just having their fill and loafing. These bastards are scheming on how to gain control of the fruits of everyone’s labour, therefore gaining power and influence in the group.

New tasks would be created to best deal with this new resource: preservation, storage, protection and rationing to name a few. These jobs would be performed by the very first civil servants. Duties not directly linked to producing substantial value to the group, but necessary just the same. Yes, most of those bullshit public service jobs were essential once upon a time; that’s a discussion for later.

People occupying these positions got an inside view of the prehistoric balance sheets and the cunning ones would have quickly worked out the very first version of cooking the books. I expect most of them dipped their fingers in now and then. The really devious ones went all in and wrangled their way to holding the metaphorical keys to the storeroom.

The OG hustlers were about to stake their claim.