Dystopic political fiction

The Doer, the Dullard and the Delegator

Three men found themselves stranded on a desert island. One man was a doer – a man of action. One man was a dullard – a dimwit and a brute. The last man was a delegator – a man who's special skill was telling other men what to do.

Face with their plight, each man set about taking in their situation. The delegator began to cry, "What do we do? What do we do?" while the dullard sat down and played in the sand of the beach. The doer just stood in place and slowly surveyed his surroundings.

"What do we do?" kept on the delegator until finally the doer spoke up.

"We'll need shelter, food, water and a wood for a fire," he said.

The delegator perked up. "Yes, good idea. We should get shelter, food, water and wood. But from where?"

The doer pointed up a hill that rose into the jungle. "I see a small stream breaking the line of those trees. That should be a source of fresh water." He then pointed down the beach. "I see some coconut trees down the beach there which we can use as food. And the forests should be full of sufficient materials to build a shelter and to serve as fuel for a fire."

"Yes, of course!" said the delegator who gestured to the dullard to get up, and they started toward the hill with the stream.

The doer just shook his head, knowing they had nothing to carry the water and headed in the direction of the coconuts. He gathered enough for all of them and headed back to their spot on the beach, found a small round stick and some dry wood and proceeded to drill a hole in one coconut.

By the time the other two returned, he had drilled three holes in three coconuts and each drank the milk and then he showed them how to use a stick to dig out the white meat inside like a scraper. "This way we can use them to carry the water," he told them. But they were already tired from their hike to the spring so when they finished he went with three empty shells to get more water for later and pointed to them where they could gather some wood he had seen for a shelter and a fire.

Upon arriving back to the beach with the water, he noticed the dullard hauling all the wood while the delegator gave him directions. He shrugged it off for at least there was a considerable pile. On his way back he had collected some grass stems and began to weaving a small piece of twine. The delegator glanced at his work every so often but mostly occupied himself with leading the brute about.

After they collected enough wood, the dullard and the delegator stood by the doer as if to say 'now what?' He strung his piece of twine on a small, flexible stick as a bow and showed them how to use it on another stick to start a fire. He then explained to them how they could construct shelters for each of them to sleep in. When he was satisfied they understood, he told them he was going to build a trap to catch some fish so they wouldn't have to eat just coconuts.

The brute sat down at once with the bow and began to pull and the doer stayed long enough to help them get the fire started and to be sure the delegator understood how to build the three shelters before he went off to build his traps. By the time he returned, sure enough there was a healthy fire and three shelters. The delegator had 'assigned' himself the largest of the three and the dullard the smallest, but his was more than suitable so they all slept for the night.

Early the next morning, the doer again set off for the coconut trees making sure the other two knew where to find more wood for the fire and that they should get more water. On his way he wound himself another longer piece of twine which he used to help him climb the trees as most of the nuts on the ground were already picked up. As he was finishing up, the delegator came along and was admiring his rope.