tale 45 the state, that’s me
Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79
74
|
------------------------------
|
The state, that’s me!
Once upon a time, there was a monkey king in
banana land. He lived in a big palace and had many servants and soldiers. The
whole valley surrounded by hills belonged to his realm.
When he was young, he often went around in his
empire and watched the peasants working, got them to build mills and bridges
and led his soldiers to make war against the neighbouring valleys. He loved
big parades where his soldiers marched under his balcony and enjoyed his
subjects cheering at him, then he always shouted: “The state, that’s me!”
There were some monkeys who didn’t like the system and they left the valley,
but when they got caught, they were severely punished for desertion.
However, after some years, he neglected state
affairs and grew lazy in the same rapidity as his belly became larger. Then
he sometimes only climbed up onto the tall tower of his palace from where he
could oversee his possessions, but at the end, he sat on his throne all day
long and stuffed his stomach. Very often, his advisers told him that the
realm needed new mills, granaries and bridges, but he was just having large
meals and watching his beautiful belly dancers and only growled: “The state,
that’s me!”
One morning, when he woke up and was still having
a hangover from the night before, he rang the bell for one of his servants to
come in to pull the curtains aside from the windows. He waited for some
minutes, but nobody entered. He rang again, but nobody appeared. He got angry
and rang like in frenzy, but again nobody appeared. After some time, he
finally got up and pulled the curtains away from the windows himself. The sun
was already high in the sky and blinded him. He felt a headache, so he went
back into his bed again. Soon his stomach indicated him that he was hungry;
therefore, he rang the bell, but again nobody appeared.
After an hour, he got so angry that he decided to
get up and have the servant’s head cut off, but he couldn’t move very fast
because he was very fat. He opened the door of his enormous dormitory and
stepped out into the corridor. There, he saw the usual soldier on guard
standing beside his door. He shouted at him, “Why is nobody coming, when I’m
ringing?” The soldier didn’t answer. “Are you deaf?” The soldier still didn’t
answer. He stepped back a bit. Wasn’t the soldier afraid of him. “I will have
your head cut off,” he shouted but the soldier still didn’t move, not even an
inch. He got even more frightened. Was that a revolution and was he a
prisoner in his own palace?
He ran back into his dormitory to get his shield
and sword and attacked the soldier from behind. The armour of the soldier
fell to the ground in pieces. It had only been an armour without a soldier in
it. “What is going on here?” he thought by himself.
With his shield and sword, he went on to the
throne hall where he had enjoyed the dance of the beautiful belly dancers the
evening before. With his foot, he kicked the double wind door open. There was
no reaction from inside, so he went in. It was empty. Not a single soul could
be seen. Was he alone in the huge palace? After a few hours, he had managed
to look into every single room and hall in his palace but couldn’t find
anybody. However, what was even more disappointing when he entered the
kitchen, that all pots, pans and baskets were empty. He could not even find a
single banana to relieve his hunger. What had happened to his loyal servants?
Had they all deserted him?
Vacillating between despair and anger, he finally
decided to visit the barracks of his soldiers. When he entered the first
building, he was shocked by what he saw. Armor and weapons lay in disarray on
the floor; the barracks looked like having been deserted long time ago. The
cultivated land made no better impression, the banana and coconut
plantations, the fields for the seeds and the rice fields, everything seemed
long abandoned. The bridges and mills had crumbled and the roads been
recaptured by nature, overgrown with thickets of bushes and weeds. His once
so prosperous realm resembled a wild jungle.
But he couldn’t find any dead bodies, bones or
other remains of monkeys.
After days of fighting himself through the
jungle, he finally arrived in the next valley. It was the country of a kind
of republic, he had made war against for years before getting lazy.
Reaching the first planting fields, he recognized
some of his peasants, soldiers and old advisers. “What are you doing here?
Why don’t you work on my lands?” he asked them. The old adviser lifted his
head and recognizing his former king answered, “you wanted to be the state.
Why don’t you do the work yourself?”
Sudden enlightenment shone in his eyes: The state
is an organization above the heads of its subjects, but if there are no
subjects, then there is no state. Who depends more on whom? Maybe, the state
and law should serve its subjects?
|
-----------------------------------------------
|
--------------------------------------------------
|
-------------------------------------------------
|
---------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
Montag, 27. April 2020
Abonnieren
Kommentare zum Post (Atom)
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen