A message from a very good country
Greetings Friends,
I’m the herald of your neighbouring country. I’m writing to tell you the story of what happened in our country recently. Me and everyone else here thinks that you might find this tale helpful.
I won’t start at the beginning, that would take aaaaages. Instead I’ll start a few years ago…
In those days our Kingdom was good… very, very good. You see, The King was in charge, and The King was kind and compassionate. You’d know it if you met him. He exuded warmth and love. As you sat with him you knew that he really wanted you, and everyone else, to be okay. And he was in charge. He was young, and trusting and his declarations were simple: “We should help the others, we should help them as much as we can”.
The rest of the court obeyed.
Sorry, I’m excited and writing too fast. First, let me introduce the other members of our modest court. Alongside The King there’s:
The Academics - these brilliant minds are trusted by The King to help him figure things out. They are experts in the abstract. They devote most of their effort to figuring out how to do good. They do the maths. They research who needs the most help, and how we can use our resources effectively.
The Judge - he’s important. He keeps us in order and ensures peace at home and abroad. He is a veteran of the old wars with the countries to the north and manages our country's defences. He makes sure we follow all the orders.
The Knight of Festivals - She’s in charge of throwing the parties. She creates space for the whole country to kick back and relax.
The Herald (that’s me) - I’m here to let everyone else know what’s going on. I issue our proclamations and talk to neighbouring countries. I also like to write a story or two.
Where was I…
Ah yes - a few years ago.
So, for a while, the main thing our kingdom had been doing was helping other countries. We had figured out early in our history that we were wealthy. Our gold mines were deep and our fields were fertile. We had a lot that we could afford to give away and The Academics had discovered that many other countries were far less well off. Hearing this, The King’s command was that we gave much of our wealth away. That was now our country's purpose. Obviously we are only humans, so we didn’t give away everything. We knew that if we gave too much, the kingdom would fall and there would be no-one left to support the needy. So we kept some resources back for ourselves.
We also still took time to relax. Every now and again, The Knight of Festivals was allowed to take food and gold and organise a party. These would be modest affairs, the budget kept as small as possible; just enough to give everyone a chance to rest so that they could get back to work the next day.
This is how it had been for many years. The King issued orders for us to help; The Academics worked fiercely to figure out how to ensure the Kingdom's resources helped others the most; The Judge made sure everyone was keeping in line with the King’s demands; The Knight of Festivals threw the occasional modest party to give everyone a chance to rest; And me, well, I didn’t do much to be honest. Occasionally I would proclaim the good deeds of our kingdom. The Academics thought that maybe this would help other kingdoms do good in turn, but The Judge disagreed.
"Do not boast of our kingdom's virtues," he would warn them sternly. "We must not risk inflaming the egos of less prosperous lands."
And so my proclamations were kept brief and infrequent.
Some days The Academics, The Knight of the Festivals and I would complain to one another:
“Sometimes it would be nice to just do some cool science” The Academics would say “It would be so interesting to just be able to try and figure out how this world works, without it needing to be about helping others”
“I feel the same” said The Knight of the Festivals “I just want to throw a really cool party. Not a small party so that we can just rest. I want a massive party, just for the joy of it. A party that all the neighbouring kingdom’s will be talking about for years!!!”.
“Me too” I said “I want to talk more, and not just about helping others. I’d really like to write songs about love and wonder, or just write silly stories about kings and knights”
“Stop complaining and get back to work” The Judge ordered us. And we obeyed.
It was around then, four years ago, that the plague hit….
It wasn’t so bad.
Oh, no sorry, that’s what we told ourselves and everyone else at the time. It was actually Really Fucking Bad.
The plague made us weaker. So much weaker. But we knew we could still help. We were still stronger than those we were helping. And so the orders didn’t let up. While our country was sick, we continued to help the less fortunate. We worked through the fatigue and through the tears of pain as the plague ravaged our bodies.
But this couldn’t last, and one day everything broke. The economy failed, and we had no more to give. We could barely feed ourselves.
That was the dark time. We were still sick and confused and none of us knew how to respond, and the council fought amongst ourselves. The Judge still screamed at us to work, but none of us could. The King spent long hours alone, despondent in his failing bid to uplift the country. Despair crept through the kingdom.
Then one day a priestess, a healer from a neighbouring country visited. The priestess had heard distant whispers on her travels of a strange plague that left suffering in its wake. Compelled to investigate, she journeyed to our ailing country. She came to our courtroom one day, looked around and said:
“Holy shit you guys, what the fuck?”
The priestess spoke to The King then. She saw the kindness in his eyes, she trusted him, and wanted to understand how this had happened.
“I never wanted it to be like this,” The King explained. “I just want us to all be okay”.
“Looks like you haven’t done a great job there fella” the priestess explained “how did this happen? Why weren’t you able to look after yourselves?”
The Judge had been looking nervously at the priestess since she had arrived, and now stood up…
“Don’t listen to her!! He shouted at The King.
“We need to keep helping others, we can’t stop now!”
It was then that we all finally saw it. We saw The Judge, a huge veteran of the old wars towering over the King, a young boy, calmly staring back. It was clear who was in control…
“This is your fault!” we all screamed at the judge.
“The King didn't ask us to work this hard, you did! You’ve been in charge this whole time!”
The Judges' face oscillated between anger and fear.
“You don’t understand!” he shouted.
“Don’t you remember? Don’t you remember the wars with the countries to the north? Because I do! I was there… We didn’t survive because we were stronger! We didn’t survive because we were smarter! We survived because we were good! By showing them that the good King was in charge, we were safe. I've been keeping it this way to keep us all safe. Doing good has kept us safe!”
“This doesn’t look super safe to me guy!” the priestess teased.
“Anyway, you folk seem to be on top of this, so I’ll be on my way” she said, disappearing from the courtroom.
“The countries to the north have been peaceful for a long time” The Academics explained. “Their dictators were overthrown many years ago and they have been peaceful liberal democracies ever since. As far as we are aware, this whole ‘doing good’ act isn't keeping us safe from anyone!”
The judge looked a little sheepish! “I don’t believe you!” he murmured.
“You’ve done a good job Judge” the King interjected calmly “You were keeping us safe, but it’s time to let go a little. I still want us to help others, but not at these costs. This isn’t working. I also want us to be able to have fun and play with ideas. I want us to party and write silly stories. And yes, I also want us to be safe. We just need to figure out a way to balance our values. I don't think you should call me King anymore. I never really was in charge after all. I’m here to help, to heal, call me Healer.
The Healer stood up then. He no longer looked so young; his kind eyes were still there, but we could see in him a new strength.
“I don’t want power” he said, “no-one will be able to lead this country alone”
“What if we share power?” he asked, “what if we balance each of our goals and strengths, and collectively ensure that no one of us takes things too far?”
While we others agreed, The Judge initially protested. He wasn’t totally convinced it was safe. But we reassured him that he would still be able to protect us, and he knew he had to let go.
We agreed to try. We agreed that we could each take charge of the countries resources when we needed to, and that we would collectively ensure that no individual took things too far.
I’d like to say that this new found balance made everything perfect, but we still have challenges. Some months one of us still takes things too far. We occasionally use too many resources on a party, or research or our defences. But with our new intention toward balance, the court soon realises and we are now more able to adjust course.
We still see the pain of the world. We see how much help is needed more clearly than ever. The Healer asks us to intervene, and we do. And without the interference of The Judge, our help can be more honest, and more compassionate. We still share much of the resources of our country with those that need it. We are still a good country. But that’s no longer all we are….