Once upon a time there was a small patch of forest where every creature did their part. There was an owl and a mouse, and a fox and other creatures. The mouse was happily going about cleaning up the forest floor and organizing it's food supply when the owl swooped down and warned the the mouse that it wasn't doing its job properly. "How so? Why not?" asked the mouse mystified, "Because I say so," said the owl.
"But wait, are you blind? Everyone else is doing it this way?"
"How dare you! I'm an owl! I could eat you. Who are you to question me?"
The mouse kept its head down and avoided that owl. And some months went by. When suddenly a fox came into the mouses' area. The fox began sniffing around the mouses lair and soon was digging up its garden, seeds and nuts were strewn all over the formerly nicely kept garden.
The mouse, seeing that it was a strong and mighty fox doing the damage, was reluctant to say anything, after its experience with the owl but then decided it would. "Stop this! This is my garden, I've worked for months on this. Please stop!"
The fox stopped digging and indignantly looked at the little mouse. "What!? You are going to tell me what to do!? One swipe and you'd be dead!"
"You've ruined all my hard work! Why are you doing this?"
The fox paused a moment, "Because I can," it said slyly, "after all I am bigger than you, more powerful and have been here longer than you! Look at all the holes I've dug." And it pointed broadly at all its handiwork.
The mouse shook its head. It had had enough of this type of treatment. The mouse called a meeting of the little creatures and complained about what it felt was an abuse of power by the larger and more powerful creatures of the forest. The other mice and rabbits and creatures listened but said little.
"No dissent! We're not allowed to question their actions or authority," said one scared little rabbit. "Why not?" asked the mouse. The rabbit shrugged.
"If you want to keep living here you won't," said another mouse. "Yeah, it's against the rules," said a frightened chipmunk.
A supercilious mouse boldly came forward and stated, "Well, I have no problems with them." "No?"
"Nope." "Well, what do you do when they steamroller right over you and dig up your garden and are rude to you and criticize you with no explanations and then when you try to contact them they just ignore you?"
"Nothing," said the mouse smugly. "And everything is fine!"
After the meeting the mouse was upset and perplexed and soon was visited by the owl.
"Your meeting notes violate the rules of this forest! You must destroy them."
The mouse's mouth fell open indignant at the arrogance of this owl. The stuffed owl flew off, but, the mouse knew it's eyes would be peering out from its little corner of the forest soon enough.
One thing the mouse did notice was that some of the little creatures that it used to know and who did some great work in the forest seemed to be missing. It soon discovered that some of them had left due to the pressure of the elite animals of the forest, sadly others had been eaten.
The mouse realized that no matter how polite it was there was always going to be a fox and an owl and any of an assortment of other higher up creatures that were going to throw their weight around. And it realized that it would always stick up for itself despite what the higher ups might like because the mouse considered itself equal in worth to these other creatures and wouldn't be intimidated by them. In the end the forest would still need to be tended to. If the fox or the owl ate the mouse, well, that could happen. The mouse might choose to leave as well. The forest will still be tended to and the angry creatures who believe they run the forest will still be going after the mice, but, the forest might not be tended quite as well as it used to be. The End
