Once upon a time, there was a kingdom. This kingdom was a prosperous kingdom and it was filled with peoples from many lands. The people were happy in this kingdom and took great pride in being a part of it.
One day, a Swen Merchant came to the kingdom. He looked in amazement at the prosperity of the kingdom and at all the peoples that lived and work in it. The Swen Merchant decided he wanted to be a part of this wonderful kingdom and thought he could provide a great service to all the people.
So, the Swen Merchant hired orators to go throughout the kingdom each day and provide the people with the news of the day. At first, the orators spoke with eloquence and poise as they provided the news of the day. The people of the kingdom enjoyed this service very much and would stop and listen when the orators spoke.
As time passed, however, many of the people became too busy to stop and listen when the orators spoke. After all, this was a very prosperous kingdom and there was much work to be done. This upset the Swen Merchant, so he instructed his orators to make stories out of the daily news so that it would be more interesting to the people. This worked for a time, but soon the people became too busy to stop and listen once again. This upset the Swen Merchant and he pondered day and night to figure out what he could do to get the people to stop and listen to his orators.
One day, the orators received word of a mystical force that had destroyed a neighboring kingdom, and that it would soon be upon their prosperous kingdom. On this day, when the orators went out, they told stories of how the mystical force had caused death and destruction and that it could soon be upon their kingdom. On this day, the people stopped and listened. The people stopped and listed to the orators every day that they told stories of gloom and doom.
The Swen Merchant took notice of how the stories of gloom and doom caused people to stop and listen to his orators. One day, the Swen Merchant called a meeting with all his orators and he instructed them to tell as many stories of gloom and doom as they could so that the people would stop and listen. He even told his orators with great passion, “don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story”, because a good story is what will make the people stop and listen.
The people of this prosperous kingdom began to worry and anxiously wring their hands because every day there was a story of gloom and doom. In time, the people forgot how prosperous the kingdom really was and how happy they were in the kingdom. They began to lock their houses and the children could not go out and play. They stopped visiting with each other and looked at strangers with suspicion. They heard so many stories of gloom and doom that they could not shake it from their minds.
When they did go out, the people would only gathered in small groups and would often whispered about the other peoples with suspicion and distrust. Feuds began to develop between some of the peoples, and the feuds grew and grew. The Swen Merchant, however, was delighted. With each feud he had another story for his orators to tell. With each story, the feuds would grow and grow.
The feuds grew so great, that the once prosperous kingdom, with peoples from all over the world, was no longer prosperous. In fact, it was barely a kingdom at all. There was no more prosperity, there were no more happy people, and no one took pride in being a part of it.
That, dear reader is how the Swen Merchant destroyed the kingdom, and no one even noticed.
The end.
Joe Shaw