squirrels an' their politics

squirrels an' their politics

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[they're] as headstrong as
an allegory on the banks of
the [n]ile.
                                                    ---Sheridan
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although they of necessity share
space here on the patio (due to
its limited size), local squirrels
are not by nature congregant
critters like prairie dogs ---

which are squirrels

--- are.

they do not gather together with
communal purpose in teamwork fashion.

however, though they seem to hold
at least a soupcon sense of fairness
in their makeup, their politics
stand firmly in the anarchist camp
versus bolshevist.

the biggest and/or most assertive
bully tends to get what he or she
wants;

and tends is the right word,
I think, because the underdogs (or
is that undersquirrels?) do sometimes
employ artful ways of getting around/
past mingy, overaggressive types!

especially when young, they do engage
one another ---

very entertainingly, I
might here assert

--- in quite complex hide-and-seeks
and games of tag and it! and even
cockalorums, adhering to (mutually
understood but unwritten) rules of
proper play conduct.

but that aside, they in general hold
a preference for acting alone.

except in matters of sex, of course;
and the males can be meanly aggressive
when insisting on it.

I think that if squirrels did have some
form of government, that rulership
would soon---

no matter any arguably
laudable merits that might reveal
themselves to a surface probing of its
early stages

--- devolve into a sort of
kakistocracy

(as it seems, misfortunately,
to be in the habit of doing for the bulk
of humankind).

in other words, they'd probably be no
brighter about it than are we.

so maybe anarchy is ---

but I'd better quit before I put you
to sleep.

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I can only imagine some of the outrageous
detail that might appear in a jonathan
swift satirical treatment of a vexing ---

you know, the same swift who wrote
gulliver's travels.

--- a vexing squirrel bureaucracy
indulging, with their color-coded
turbaned heads, in intentionally
bureaucratic inaction, with associated
raging political in-house battles over
turf too lifelike to be comical.