[Politics] The Pot Luck

One day a neighborhood community decided to that it would be nice to host a pot luck. The first one went great. Everyone brought something to eat, there was plenty of food, everyone got something they wanted (but maybe not everything they wanted) and went home happy, being united with companionship and good times. It went so well that every year this community decided it should become an annual tradition, a way to help each other up, share their bounty, and overall had great times.

As it became more popular, it needed to be a little more organized. After all, no one wants 5 people to bring hot dogs and no one to bring potato salad to a party, or a pot luck without forks! Who could imagine trying to eat macaroni salad with only knives! Because of this, the community promoted a few people who took a few weeks to make sure it was organized and managed so that the party ran smoothly every year.

However, problems soon arose. The first that happened was when some people had a peanut allergy which prevented them from eating Aunt Petuna's peanut brittle. These people were part of the community and made to feel welcome, so accommodations were made for them so they didn't have to enter anaphylactic shock.

There were other small problems that the community were able to solve easily. From location to general food organization, things went smoothly for a couple years.

That is, until the organizers thought to themselves, "Our community is great! We should be able to make it better! We can rent Farmer John's land and some tents, and have some real class to this event! Maybe we can get a bouncy castle for kids as well! We just need some money to do this!" Everyone thought this was a great idea, so they all donated $10 or so dollars to make their pot luck something really special.

But this stressed the organizers out a lot. It takes a LOT of work organize and rent space, tents, and a bouncy castle! "Why are we doing this for free?" they asked, "We should get something extra for all the work we put in!" The rest of the community grumbled, but agreed that the organizers were doing a pretty good job so they all pitched in a little extra.

Even with this the organizers were stretched a little thin. They compromised by randomly assigning people things they were supposed to bring instead of people bringing in what foods they did best. The community grumbled but the organizers said "It's better than having a pot luck without paper plates!" so the community continued doing what the organizers asked.

The pot luck grew and grew and became more and more complicated. It became the most important part to the community's year, as it wasn't just a social event to share food, but a way for people to get food that they need for the year, and a place for the community to get help from other members, be it financial trouble, housing renovations, or help with weeds in your lawn.

However, this soon ran into a major issue! The vegetarians were asked to bring in meat dishes! The vegetarians complained that making meat goes against their principals and that, until this point, they were happy complying people. They weren't preventing other people from eating or bringing meat dishes after all, they just wanted to live life the way they believed.

"Tough," answered the community organizer chosen to represent the organization, "We are too busy to cater to your needs and why can't you just be like everyone else? We're not asking you to EAT it, just make it! Do your part for the community, or else we won't let you in!" said the community representative. By this time the pot luck was very important to the community, and being removed from the pot luck was to practically be exiled from the community itself. The cost of standing up for their beliefs wasn't worth the trouble.

To prevent some of this, the organizers switched to contracts. The community has grown so more food needed to be brought in. Rather than everyone bring what they can, only SOME people who had their contracts were paid to bring in the food they were contracted to do. People were allowed to bring food, but it unnecessary now and was so much easier to pay a fee and let someone else do the work!

As the pot luck continued to grow, there were more and more problems involved in it. A group of community members who were REALLY good at barbecue chicken wanted to come together to make the ultimate barbecue chicken! However, the organizer realized everyone would want THEIR chicken rather than the chicken Humbug Joe brought. They needed to make sure ALL chicken was good, so they imposed standards on Humbug Joe's chicken so he HAD to meat minimum requirements, like the chicken needing to be cooked and be, well, chicken. However, also prevented the really good barbecue chicken guys from forming their Ultimate Barbecue Chicken group.

This made the Ultimate Barbecuer's mad. When it came time to add new members to the organizing committee, they formed a coalition to get their guy in. "He's the best at chicken!" they said, "We will make sure he will bring the best chicken at the pot luck!" People and agreed and elected him in. however, once he was in regulated the chicken to the point that ONLY the Ultimate Chicken guys could make chicken. Other people could get in, but these chicken guys were jerks. They made sure to pay extra fees that the Ultimate Chicken guys didn't have to pay. They pocketed these fees because "better to be part of the pot luck then be alone and isolated".

The Ultimate Chicken guys were just the beginning. It was soon the Potato Salad People, Aunt Petuna's peanut brittle co, and so on. They all had their people have seats in the community organization group. After all, they were already doing so much work for the pot luck, they may as well have a part in organizing it as well!

The weird thing is that after all these "highly qualified" and "the best" people were involved, the quality of pot luck food went down! Because the organizers effectively eliminated competition competition, the Ultimate Chicken guys, the Potato Salad People, etc. no longer had to work as hard since they could simply prevent other people from bringing in other products through their regulations! Not only that, but they would then award themselves the big pot luck contracts themselves!

The size of the pot luck got a lot of interest from other communities. Some began their own, but many people just wanted to join in on the big pot luck! The community said, "well, if you want to join in you have to help out and become part of the pot luck, sharing responsibilities, fees, and the regulations we all adhere to." Many people thought this was a great deal, and the pot luck grew.

However, there were a lot of people who just wanted to get in without paying the fees. "This isn't fair!" cried the growing community, "We all adhere to these rules, why shouldn't these other people?"

"Well," said the organizers, "these people can clean up the trash after the pot luck, and do some of the sanitary work like cleaning up the dishes, mowing the lawns, and so on! No one wants to do that!"

However, the organizers were playing two sides. Because the mooching members don't follow the rules the organizers themselves put into place, the organizers could then pay them less in their businesses they award themselves! Joe, Larry, Bob, and Houdini the trash men got fired. "It's okay though" thought the organizers, "They're part of the pot luck and will get help from the community, despite them no longer earning a living." Meanwhile, they were also getting profits from the mooching and community members because they had to buy the Ultimate Chicken guy's chicken, etc. etc.

While this is going on, people outside these groups and the organizing committee got kinda mad. "The pot luck is not what it used to be!" they cried! Outside of the pot luck, many people who didn't want to be super involved in it did their own thing. Many profited as their product ended up being better or outside of the Ultimate Chicken Guy's business.

Eventually, Jhonny Blonpf, of Orange Man's Tents stood up. He payed to play at the pot luck, but the pot luck wasn't his only business. "The pot luck isn't what it used to be!" He said, "It used to be a way for the community to share what they had! Now it's become a place where these organizers reward themselves for organizing! It's a huge waste of money! The jobs that used to go to Joe, Larry, Bob, and Houdini are now employed by people not of this community! We need to fix it and Make the Pot Luck Great Again!"

"Racist!" said the community organizers! "You hate people not of this community because you are racist!"

"Racist!" said the news people who got special regulations from the organizers, "You hate people not of this community because you are racist!"

"Racist!" said the Ultimate Chicken Guys in a public statement, "We will never work with Jhonny Blonpf's Tent company again!"

Many companies and groups followed suite against Jhonny Blonpf. However, this made many people think ,"Hmm, all these people have been part of the pot luck for decades. Jhonny Blonpf is an odd guy for sure, but is what he's saying true?"