SPHINX TAIL
HERO'S QUEST TO PUT THE WORLD TO
RIGHTS.
Once
upon a time something was wrong with the world.
So intelligent, good-hearted,
brave Hero set out on a quest to put the world to rights
by destroying the Enemy.
'How will you recognise the Enemy?' asked
Hero's father.
'The Enemy is different from me.' replied Hero.
'The Enemy is Death.'
'Take care.' begged Hero's mother. 'Be good.'
She was a stereotypical mother.
'Come back soon.' warned Hero's lover. 'Love
lasts forever, but sex has a time limit.'
The first person Hero met was an
Old Man.
'Good morning.' said the Old Man.
'I am on my way to put things
right.' said Hero.
'Can I help you? I have spent my
life trying to make the world a better place by enacting laws that
protect people from injustice.' offered the Old Man.
'No.' said Hero. 'You are old. You
are a man. You have no new ideas and you do not know what it is to be
a Hero and put the world to rights.'
'That may be true.' said the Old
Man. 'The world keeps changing but some of the things my generation
have made might be useful for you to carry with you.'
'No.' said Hero
'As you wish.' said the Old Man who
had plenty of children and was tired of disagreements.
The next person that Hero met was a
Liberal.
'Hello Hero.' said the Liberal.
'Where are you going?'
'I am on my way to put things right
and destroy the Enemy.' said Hero.
'Can I help you?' said the Liberal.
'I want to put things right too. Perhaps I can go with you some of
the way at least?'
'No' said Hero. 'My only friends
are those who agree to go all the way with me.'
'I am sorry.' said the Liberal who
always apologised for her failures and who wore ill-fitting shoes.
The third person that Hero met was
a Moderate.
'Hi.' said the Moderate. 'I am
heading in your direction and have already made some progress. Shall
we journey together? I am going to visit my family.'
'No.' said Hero. 'My friends are
wholly committed to my quest and you only care about your family.'
'Okay. Do it your way.' said the
Moderate who because of experience, was given to being pragmatic and
also had transport.
The next two persons Hero met were
an Artist and a Writer.
'Wow!' said they said. 'A Hero at
last. We have been playing around with ways of shaking up people and
shocking them into having new ideas so the world can change for the
better. Can we help you? What do you think?'
'Well I'm not flaky and offensive
like you both.' said Hero. 'You simply cannot be relied on to be
politically correct. I know what I think. Your thoughts are all over
the place.'
'Perhaps
and maybe not.' said the Artist and Writer. 'But we have
always fought with the Enemy. Will you free our brothers and sisters
if you defeat the Enemy?'
'When I defeat the Enemy I will.'
promised Hero. 'Artists and writers have a high nuisance value
however, so only if they paint my portrait and write a flattering
eulogy about me.'
The Artist and Writer shrugged.
They were used to bad reviews and carrying out worse commissions and
had been invited to a party.
Hero found himself surrounded by a
crowd of travellers who were all arguing with each other.
'Who are you all?' Hero asked in
some confusion.
'We are all Heroes going on a quest
to put things right and destroy the Enemy.' said one of the many
spokespeople in the crowd.
“Oh.' said Hero surprised. 'I
thought I was the only one on this quest. I am sure it is good to
have companions who will go all the way with me. Please can you tell
me how you are going to destroy the Enemy.'
'There is only one way to destroy
the Enemy.' said another spokesperson. 'I am the only one with the
solution.'
At this the argument became even
louder and more fractious.
'First we must go back and destroy
the Old Man's law.' said one.
'No we must rewrite it.' said
another.
'Its the fault of the Liberals.
They are too soft and kind and don't realise that they have always
been fortunate. Without them things would be clearer and there would
be more space.'
'Its the fault of the Moderates.
They only consider themselves and not others. We must take away their
riches.'
'Its the fault of the Artists and
Writers. We have to teach them what they are NOT allowed to say.'
Some of the travellers said 'Lets
go back and tell everyone how to do things properly.'
Others said 'Lets go forward and
fight the Enemy.'
Realising that there was no
consensus among his companions, Hero asked. “Have you seen the
Enemy? Do you know what the Enemy looks like?'
This last question caused such a
tremendous row that a fist fight broke out among the Heroes. No one
could decide for certain who the Enemy was or what the Enemy looked
like.
'Poverty.' 'Ignorance.' 'Greed.'
'Bigotry.' 'Riches'. 'Sickness.' 'Immorality.' 'Dogma.' 'Lack of
faith.' were all suggested.
'I still think its Death.'
determined Hero.
Neither could any of them agree on
the best way to destroy the Enemy. Apparently everyone of them had
asked an intellectual or an analyst for their point of view with the
result that there were more opinions than people. They all had
developed dreadful headaches from thinking about it. Hero was going
to add that the Enemy seemed to be within their group but nobody was
listening.
At last a third spokesperson stood
up.
'We have decided to go onto
Facebook and see who gets the most Likes.' he said. ' When we know
that, then we will Unfriend those who got the least and that is how
we will destroy the Enemy.'
'Are you sure?' asked Hero who had
climbed up a nearby hill to escape the fracas.
'Look what is happening! It seems
that the Enemy is also behind us.'
At that the Heroes turned around
and found to their horror that the Enemy had divided and multiplied
and had them surrounded.
The Heroes could see that rather a
large number of Artists and Writers had been killed and imprisoned.
Liberals and Moderates were being attacked and wounded on every side.
Most saddening for the Heroes was the huge numbers of dead women and
children that lay about everywhere.
The Old Man, helpless with tears,
watched from a distance. They were all his children after all.
