The ones seeking to be kings wanted to outlaw schools. The people educated themselves. The ones seeking to be kings vilified those who had intelligence and compassion. The lands taught these would-be kings that it was this intelligence and compassion was the only reason they survived. -- Anon Guest
Of all the universal truths, the one most forgotten is: Those who actively seek power should never have it. Those sorts of people never seek power to do good for others. Especially beware those who dress their power-hunger in glitter and sugar.
Benevolence is a large and very pretty cloak. It covers so much.
Witness the miracle of the self-made idol of thousands. A man who lifted himself up by his bootstraps with a small investment of fifty trillion quatloos. The one who started competition against the establishment with a revolutionary pod system that brought the dream future to the public today.
So there were a few quirks here and there. When one revolutionised everything that everyone knew, there had to be teething trouble.
Little hiccoughs, like patrons being charged twice for goods that didn't arrive. People being charged for things they didn't purchase. People receiving things they didn't order. And, of course, repeated disconnections from the help system, causing customers to start over the process again and again and again.
He promised so much. He delivered as much as he said he could, and the people loved him.
So they handed him power on a silver platter.
Surely, the people agreed, he would fix everything now that he had access to all of the things that were broken. He was bound to revolutionise the world.
Well. They weren't wrong...
The man who glittered and lied his way to power added reforms to operations in his realm. Reforms that made sure everyone had work - whether they wanted it or not. Reforms to put education back in the hands of the parents... who already had work. Reforms to trim the fat of the medical care industry - to eliminate it entirely.
Only the very old or the very infirm were free to revolt, so they didn't have much in the way of strength. What they did have was knowledge, and clever ways of teaching things. Things little children should not know.
Like... fun tricks to play against terrible authorities. And what terrible authorities should look like.
And when the great man inevitably fell prey to a prank that almost killed him... well. His staff were too busy with other tasks to help him. There were no emergency services to deal with his emergency. What could have been harmless turned into something truly deadly.
Fortunately for the people, there were others who knew better ways to run a world. Starting with bringing back essential services.
[Photo by Valery Fedotov on Unsplash]
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