The Parable of the Community Orchard of Steemiroth

Hey everyone, as many of you know by now there has been a call to action for a troll hunt by @fulltimegeek, @berniesanders, @hendrix22 and many others. While I think this is a righteous and appropriate course of action, I was surprised to learn that there are some members of the community that don't agree; they believe there are moral and ethical issues with this plan.

Any time I have trouble analyzing a situation and deciding if something is wrong or right, I often find that creating an analogy where the situation is basically the same, with certain aspects altered, can help to bring clarity to the matter. For example, when looking at a war, just switching the country names to ones you don't have biases for or against can often make it easy to see if either side is justified in their actions.

Originally this parable started out as much shorter response to another blog post but as I continued to add more details I thought it would be worth sharing with everyone. I hope you enjoy the story and that it adds to the lore surrounding the hunt.

The Parable of the Community Orchard of Steemiroth

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Once upon a time, long ago in the kingdom of Steemiroth there was a community orchard where the people would go to pick apples in the fall. They would use the apples to make preserves and ciders to help them through the long hard winters.

Everyone was pretty fair about only taking the apples they needed for themselves and their families. While there were a few families that picked, what seemed like, more than their fair share of apples, these families also bought new trees or tools for the orchard or would spend more time pruning and maintaining the trees than other community members. The families would sell these apples at a nearby market to pay for their expenses or to make up for the time they lost not tending their own fields while they were maintaining the orchard.

Everything went well for generations, with everyone only taking what they needed or deserved until one year something unusual happened. There was a man named Grog who decided one harvest to take more apples than he needed, or deserved, just to see what would happen.

Photo by Joanna Nix on Unsplash

The first year Grog took extra apples from the orchard, few people noticed. There was an abundance of apples for everyone and the people of Steemiroth were unusually polite so no one said anything.

Emboldened, the next fall Grog took even more apples. He took so many apples that he couldn't even use them all for his own preserves and cider. Instead, he brought them to the market and sold them, making a handsome profit for himself. Some of the other community members who worked and tended the orchard, were also selling apples that day and noticed what Grog was up to. They had never seen Grog do any work, other than harvesting apples in the orchard and were a little upset that he had taken way more than what he needed.

Handsome Herold, a particularly dashing fellow, decided to have a peaceful conversation with Grog to let him know that what he was doing was unacceptable. Everyone knew that the community orchard would only succeed if people only took what they needed and no more.

Even though Herold explained the situation, after making such a great profit from the extra apples at the market, Grog wasn't willing to listen to any of this reasoning. He was already fantasizing about the palaces he would build and maidens he would be able to court with all the wealth he could accumulate by selling apples. Instead, he punched Herold in the face, knocking out a few of his teeth and making him a little less handsome.

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The people from Steemiroth who were at the market were generally peaceful. They were not used to witnessing this greedy and violent behavior, so they decided not to step in. They figured that steering clear of Grog would be best, since he had such a hot temper.

Year after year, Grog harvested and sold more and more apples from the community orchard. He never planted or tended to any trees nor did he give any apples to the needy. He just took and took. Anytime someone confronted him about his actions they were met with more violence by either himself or the goons he had hired to protect his growing business.

Finally, one fall a large group of Steemirothians decided they had had enough of this behavior. They were tired of having to make due with less apples and watching their children sometimes go hungry because Grog was taking more than his fair share. They noticed that a few other people had also started taking extra apples and began selling them at the market too. In fact, the price for apples at the market was starting to drop because there were so many of them for sale now. In turn, this began to hurt everyone who contributed to maintaining the orchard.

The next time Grog tried to enter the orchard to collect apples, he was met by an angry mob wielding hay forks, sickles, and timber axes. These were simple folk, farmers, tradesmen, and merchants. Grog thought that he and his goons would easily chase off the mob who were confronting him on foot while Grog and his men were on horse back and wearing the finest armor, an impressive sight to say the least.

But when he charged the mob, they stood their ground. Grog was a bully and would act fearsome when he knew there would be no repercussions but he was a coward at heart. At the last second, Grog lost his nerve and pulled back on the reigns of his horse only to be flung to the ground. He was quickly captured and put in chains.

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What were the people of Steemiroth to do with him? Some wanted to hang him in the town square but he had broken no written laws that he could be punished like that for. Eventually, after much arguing the people decided.

Grog was dressed in rags that had been dipped in sheep's piss and paraded around the square while children threw wormy apples at him. He was allowed to go free after promising to never abuse the privilege of using the community orchard again. Regardless of what he did next, Grog would never be as revered and respected as he had once been.

The END.

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