Can it be true that pandas are never out of season? A worrying prospect, especially for those who've studied the classics, and remember Daffy's pronoun trouble during rabbit season. But there can be little doubt about the fact; after all, it's Pandbag himself that's telling us this.
But wait... isn't the boogeypanda a creature of myth? What, then, are we to make of Pandbag's assertion? Can we believe the word of a creature that doesn't exist? Certainly, we've grown up with an implicit trust of pandas, and none of us has any reason to doubt the word of Ndbag, but what if the two are combined? One is reminded of the clarity of phenolphthalein; when one mixes it with the equally colourless calcium hydroxide, one gets a new liquid; one of a different colour. Can it be that the combined words of a boogeyman and a panda can somehow lead us to an erroneous conclusion? Perhaps there are times of year when it isn't panda season?
The epistemological nature of this quandary is further clouded by the song that Pandbag sings; we're told that it's the season not just to shoot pandas, but to be them. Furthermore, one doesn't become a panda, but pandas. This leads to some confusion; is Ndbag warning us of the dangers of totalitarian societies in which the individual is subsumed into the whole, or is he telling us that those are the very societies least likely to fall through internecine conflict? We aren't told, and therein lies the point.
By refusing to offer us an opinion on the relative merits of different social systems, and by suggesting that it's always panda season, Ndbag is pointing out the necessity of each society to decide for itself. This refusal could well be traumatic for the countless numbers who've learned to rely on Ndbag for guidance, but we soon realise that he's telling us that his purpose is to guide, not to command. By forcing us to think for ourselves, he's giving us the opportunity to grow; as individuals, as societies, as a species.
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