Lecture Excerpt: On the nature of control
“One thing most life forms strive for is superiority over their peers. This is the natural order of things. It is the Way Life Works. Without competition, there is no reason to improve. Without reason to improve, there is no change. Without change, there is stagnation.
“So what is so awful about stagnation, you may ask? Well, I pondered this very question myself for some considerable time, and I must admit I found it most vexing. Ultimately I decided the only way to find a satisfactory answer was to perform an experiment. With this in mind I took some time out and travelled to a remote location, a tiny island far out in the midst of the Pacific ocean. This island had a small population of, what, a couple of hundred individuals I suppose. And the thing that fascinated me most about them was their complete and total lack of ambition. They simply went about their daily business - hunting, gathering, building and playing - without fuss and without concern. Nobody cared about their status in society. Nobody worried about furthering their career or maximising their profile. They were satisfied with who they were and what they did and they had no reason to want for anything more.
“And then, purely for the sake of my experiment, I took it upon myself to interfere, a decision that has caused me great regret over the years, for I suspect I have destroyed their idyllic lifestyle forever.
“My plan was to encourage the emergence of a new form of leader, one who would take control of the society and mould it according to his own preferences. The foundations of this revolution were built around the concept of an ‘unknown’ and the perceived power that accompanies the ability to turn it into a ‘known’. Putting my plan into action, I buried a short poem near one of their larger settlements and waited until they found it. The poem went thus:
Long ago there was
A scholar from the Euphrates.
‘I know the answer,’ he cried,
‘I know what rhymes with Euphrates!’
‘Go on, tell us then,’
That’s what the people said.
‘No, you must wait a while,’ he said
‘I’ll tell you when I’m finally dead.’
‘How can you do that?’
Asked the bewildered peoples.
‘Ah, I’m not going to tell you that
Until you tell me what rhymes with peoples.’
‘We know,’ they all said.
‘We know what rhymes with peoples!’
‘Tell me, what is it then?’
‘The word that rhymes with peoples is steeples!’
‘Thank you, my friends,’
He said for he was grateful.
‘I shall repay you what you seek
When it occurs which is fateful.’
‘To learn the word you must
Listen to my colloquy.
When I finally snuff it
Read page fourteen of my diary.’
‘Oooh,’ they said
Amazed at his poetic charm.
‘You’re so amazingly talented
We’re going to give you a farm.’
‘Thank you, my friends
You’re really far too kind.
I’d like to tell you the word
But I can’t, you see, it’s not yet defined.’
“Within a matter of days somebody found the poem and excitedly rushed it back to the island’s elders. They regarded it mostly with curiosity at first and attached no great significance to it. Amongst the regular islanders, however, it garnered rather more attention. The mystery of the unknown word that rhymed with Euphrates became a source of intense speculation and it seeped into popular culture. There were arguments and there were debates; there were opinions and there were theories; but most of all there was a new sense of cohesion and of community. The poem had given everybody a common interest to share. It became important.
“And then, one fateful day, somebody claimed to have found the poet’s diary. And with the diary, of course, the Great Lost Word itself.
“Suddenly everything changed. The man in question claimed the Word had given him great wisdom and tremendous insight. He also claimed and that he couldn’t reveal any more without risking the unbending wrath of the gods, or some such fabrication. The islanders, in their innocence, readily accepted this and listened eagerly as he began preaching his own set of ideologies and morals. As the months passed so his influence grew until one day he was able to assume control of the entire island. By perpetrating the lie that he alone knew the Great Word he sustained a power base that to this day is still strong.
“The regime he implemented, however, was both powerful and brutal. He ruled over his subjects with little concern for their welfare and became increasingly obsessed with fulfilling the role of deity in the religion that he was inventing as he went along. His appetite for power resulted in the society becoming increasingly less productive and increasingly more dystopian, while he lived in increasing splendour and luxury. In short, it devastated the island forever.
“My conclusion?
“I think the results speak for themselves really, don’t you?”