Parable of the Evil Government Official


Copyright © 2005 by Gary Tjaden

Many years ago there was a distant country where everyone was happy to be subjects of their great and kind king. They all worked full time, and usually kept busy except for one day of rest each week. Even though some were managers and some had just simple work, they all loved their jobs. Some people grew food, some maintained the chariots, others traveled to other territories on official business, and so on. No matter what their jobs were, their tasks were just right for themselves, and everyone received the same pay. No one ever complained about being paid too little, or, that someone else was being paid too much.

The king of their country paid them all, small or great, weak or strong, one little pill a day. This was no ordinary pill, though, for it prevented aging, disease, unhappiness, and death. Whoever continued taking the pill was never sick, unhappy, or old, and they would never die. No one ever even dreamed of wanting anything different.

One day, an important government official decided to stop taking the pill. “Maybe I’ll feel even better,” he thought. Unfortunately, unprotected from disease, the government official soon acquired a serious mental illness, a condition unknown before this time. Now, with distorted vision, he saw things differently. The good king was not really all that good, after all. In fact, he was a selfish tyrant, ruling ruthlessly over a nation of ignorant, drugged slaves.

Because he was in a position of great power in the government, he began to talk to his subordinates about what he saw. Working in stealth, the evil government official whispered, “If you stop drugging yourselves with the king’s pills, then you will see the truth that the king is really evil.” Some were impressed. When they stopped taking their pills, they caught the same disease, and suffered from the same delusions.

One day, the rebel official decided he wanted to be the king of their beautiful country and get rid of its first and only king, and especially, the king’s son. “I don’t trust either of them, but especially the son,” he said. He carried his plan into action the very day the king announced he was giving a new territory to his son to rule as governor.

Although the king knew all about the rebels’ plans, for he could read minds, he did nothing. “There’s only one way to stop this,” he said. “They must be allowed to carry out their plans so my loyal subjects can see the effects of the disease that the rebels have acquired. The rebels will follow my son to his own new territory and try to harm him, but there is no other way to end this disease. I will protect my son by using the deep power and knowledge of the universe that only I possess."

Just as the ceremony giving the new territory to the king’s son ended, the rebels attacked. They fought viciously and dirty, but there weren’t enough of them to overpower the king’s powerful army. The rebels faced fully two-thirds of the kingdom. Escaping for their very lives, they fled in stolen chariots to other, distant territories. Everyone’s loyalty was exposed in this war, and now, there were no more rebels left in the king’s beautiful country, now strangely quiet.

None of the other territories the rebels visited would allow them to stay. No one would even listen to their loud complaints of injustice against the king. Frustrated, the rebel leader said, “I will travel to the new territory of the king’s son. The only two people there are too stupid to realize how evil their king is. I will trick them into taking some of my pills. Then the king won’t give them any more of his pills.”

When the rebel and his friends arrived at the new territory, he wasted no time. Posing as a salesman, he convinced the young couple, barely teenagers, that the pills they were taking everyday to stay well were worthless. He said, “Here is a much more powerful medicine, one that will give you all of the knowledge in the universe. You will be just as smart as the real king himself, and can easily take care of yourselves without his drugs. The king gives you a pill every day so that he can keep you under his control and prevent you from knowing the truth, even the difference between good and evil, as he does.”

So, the only two people living in the new territory bought his high-priced pills, which were really worthless placebos, and threw away the king’s powerful pills, which really did work. As soon as they stopped taking the king’s pills, they found themselves infected with a disease, the same disease that the evil government official had. Now their whole territory was under a curse because its first parents both had a terrible disease. Every child born after this would also be infected, and their children, and their children’s children, and so on.

“Wait, my son. Come home and let them be,” the king said to his son who was supposed to rule the new territory as its governor. “Let the rebels rule the territory for awhile in order to prove to the entire world how bad they really are. Every evil thing they accuse us of is really what they are. When the time is right, I will send you there with the cure. It will be lonely and unpleasant there, but you are our only hope, for it is there that the disease must be defeated, once and for all. We need you to develop an antibiotic to counteract the disease they’re infected with.

The day finally came when the king sent his son back to his old territory, now populated with many people who didn’t believe the stories of old about a king who had a son destined to rule over them. When he arrived, none of the local officials believed he was their new ruler. “We already have a king,” they said. “We certainly don’t need another one.”

The evil government official came in person to give the real king’s son a hard time and ensure that no one helped him. Finally, the evil official gave the order to his followers to kill the son and put his dead body on display as a sign of victory.

It was, instead, a sign of defeat. With the real king’s deep knowledge of the universe, he retrieved his son’s memories and downloaded them into a clone of his son.

“When innocent blood is shed for the guilty, then will the fatal disease of the rebels be destroyed,” the real king said. “I am about to unleash the Ultimate Biological Weapon. Everyone infected with the disease will disappear in a burst of fireworks and a loud bang, but anyone who takes our special antibiotic pill to cure the disease will be saved. Then, my country and all of its territories will be safe, because the rebels and their infectious diseases will be no more.

”My son, after that day you will be the governor of your restored territory. There you will guide and protect your happy, healthy subjects forever and ever. Never again will there be any more evil government officials pretending to be kings, or their followers who would oppress and torment and harm my loyal subjects.”

And that’s exactly how it happened. Everyone now realized how important it was to take the one little pill the King gave them daily in order to be healthy and happy and live in harmony forever.