[An Except from the Speech: "Man Eats Man", by Alex Kremil]
1981, 26th of December.
"I have been instructed to read this disclaimer before I begin to speak today," said guest speaker Alex Kremil, "that the views I voice here are not necessarily the views of the University of Belgrade. Anyways, I have discovered over my long career and long life, that man eats man. Not in the way I am sure many of you are thinking, not cannibalism. Instead, I am talking about war. You see, a man is never at peace. Never. He is always in conflict with something else, another element of human society usually, but sometimes something else. Human society is a society of constant conflict, each man at the end looking out for themselves, and only themselves, regardless of who they have to, metaphorically, eat.
This conflict of human society mirrors that of nature's society. Just as animals must feast upon each other to survive in their society, so must we to survive in our own. Though we don't eat the flesh of those we overcome, no. We feast on finer things, their very spirit. A business man who engineers the failure of his rival's business has overcome his foe. He has reaped the rewards, the wealth, the prestige, the delicious taste of victory. The rival though, he receives none of that. The only outcomes he gets to taste is failure. Angry, spiteful, crushed, the winner has taken part of their foe's very soul.
This is not the only way that our society mimics nature's. Clear groups dominate both. There is the prey, and the predators. Those that are superior in navigating society, and those that are inferior. As Darwin discovered, only the fittest survive. In that way, the distinct races of the world have found ways to adapt and thrive in our society. Some are the lions, the apex predators, who are adapted to perfectly emerge on top. Some are the birds, who are adapted to surviving all society can throw at them, there until the end. Some are the rodents, so insignificant that they can scuttle about without fear, for there is no point in hunting them, they contribute nothing but also take nothing. There are the gazelle, strong enough to fight and win against even a lion, but too timid to go out of their way to directly confront them. And then there are the locus. Parasites, who contribute nothing yet take everything, with too many of them to ever wipe all of the out.
I likely do not need to say who these parallel to. There are many parasites in our society, who will perish at the single roar of a lion, but there are more parasites than lions. And the world refuses to tackle these parasites. 'Adapt and live, cries human society, or remain unchanged and die.' We need to adapt once again to the new circumstances of the world. We can no longer ignore the parasites. To do so would be to invite the death of all the lions of society, the masters of it.
The world can do several things to tackle this threat. Removing the parasites from the rest of human society, and moving them to their home continent, Ardia. But I am getting ahead of myself. The situation at home should be addressed first, before we go international. There is a clear and simple to see divide in our little corner of society. The Basnions are the parasites of Niš. This is a controversial fact, I know. But it is of vital importance for the health of the Kingdom. The King, bless his soul, should recognise the inherent error in allowing the Basnions to cling onto our society. I advise an immediate and quick removal of the Basnion people to a place better suited for them, Rokkenjima maybe. But, if that proves to be too difficult, a complete purge of them should be on the cards.
Because, put simply, it is a measure that should have been considered a long time ago. We have allowed it to fester. When a building has a termite infection, you remove it as soon as possible. Leaving it risks having the whole building collapse."
[Except Ends]
