One day, Pooh Bear
was wandering through One Hundred Acre Wood, when he came across his
best friend Tigger.
"Let one hundred
flowers bloom in One Hundred Acre Wood", Pooh said.
"My, what
a lot of flowers that would be", said Tigger.
Scratching his
tummy, Pooh felt that it was time for a little something.
"You wouldn't",
Pooh asked in full throated solidarity, "have a little something
for elevensies, would you Tigger?"
"But of course",
replied Tigger. "I have -- and don't tell that Kanga, or Roo, or
especially Eeyore -- a pot or two of Munny".
"Munny?"
asked Pooh, a little confused by the idea of promisory notes.
"Yes! Pots
of munny!"
"Um, is money
sweet?"
"Sweeter than
honey!", exclaimed Tigger, licking his lips in a predatory way.
"Goodness!"
said Pooh, excited in a bear-discovers-something-sweeter-than-honey
sort of way.
And so they set
off for Tigger's house.
Imagine Pooh's
surprise when Tigger proudly displayed his pots of money.
"Well, they're
not quite pots," explained Tigger hastily. "They're futures
on pots. And although they smell like paper at the moment, they'll smell
much sweeter soon. Next month, the price of pots doing what they are,
I'll have more pots than sense".
"How many
pots will you have?" asked Pooh, discounting the future somewhat.
"Three",
said Tigger.
And so it was that
Pooh discovered that his friend Tigger was merely the representative
of a reactionary class, and needed to be overthrown.
The lesson of the
story was that from a long-term point of view, all reactionaries are
paper tigers. It is not Tigger but Pooh as the embodiment of the will
of the people who is really powerful.
