“Grandpa! Wake Up!” A little boy runs into the study and begins to shake the arm of his grandfather. “Have you been here all night? Mom has breakfast ready.”

The old man picks his head up off the table, careful not to spill the copper pot of water that sits in front of him on the table. “Alright. Alright. I am up.”

“What did you see? It must have been something to keep you here all night.”

“Oh, it was something alright.” He took a moment to regain his senses. “It was a scene from the distant future… probably of another reality.”

“Why do you say that?… another reality…”

“Because I cannot imagine that the future people of our timeline would be so ignorant as to still allow the same old cycle of corruption to govern their lives.”

“What happened? What did you see?”

The old man looked at his grandson. He was trying to decide what to tell him. There was too much… even to put into his quatrains. There was no way to hide this in confusing prose. If he tried to share it publicly, it would be destroyed and he would be punished. If not during his life, then at some point in the future. He finally decides to let it go… the boy will need to lead at some point.

“Do you really want to know?” The boy nods his head energetically. “Alright…  

“The cycle begins with a big, brutal war…  seemingly unavoidable… 

“Born from this brutal war is a strong leader who has the ability to maintain control of the fanatics and profiteers while they grow stronger from the war. You see, both fanatics and profiteers are necessary to win a war, but after the war is over the strong leader slowly loses his grip. When he finally steps down he warns the people about the growing power of the fanatics and profiteers. The next leader listens to this warning and tries to keep them in check, even weaken them a little, but they have become too strong and they assassinate the new leader… and, as in this last iteration,” he gestures to his copper pot, “his younger brother too.

“Then, in the second part of the cycle, there is a series of leaders who all have good intentions, but they are constantly lied to and manipulated by the fanatics and profiteers whose only goal is to maintain a state of constant war. These constant wars place a huge burden on the public and thus, the leaders. Which means the fanatics and profiteers have to continuously go to greater degrees of deception for this system to keep working. The results of this increasing effort means that each leader ends up having to leave office with a larger amount of shame. Eventually, the fanatics and profiteers decide that it would be easier to install an actor; a person who is willing to play the role of leader without actually being leader. This way the fanatics and profiteers can do what they want while the acting leader works to keep the public content. This is the third stage of the cycle.

“At first, this deception only requires that the person playing the role of leader smiles, waves, and eats jelly beans. But the longer the fanatics and profiteers maintain control, the worse everything gets,.. and the more restless the public becomes. Thus, the person playing the role of leader must constantly increase their efforts to placate the public. While it starts with simply appearing convivial and authoritative, waving and smiling, over time it moves to manipulating the public with misinformation and misdirection, and then controlling the public with aggressive lies and combative distractions. Eventually, the situation becomes so depraved that the fanatics and profiteers decide to drop all pretense and simply take over the nation outright… This is the fourth stage of the cycle.

“This is always a brutal phase in the cycle. Many people die fighting against the totalitarian regime before realizing that this is a futile tactic,.. as the fanatics and profiteers value (and are strengthened by) conflict more than anything else. The surviving people do learn that the best way to deal with the situation is to be still and not give any energy to them. Like fighting a cancer, the people accept that starving their own society to death is the only way to bring an end to the brutal regime. The fanatics and profiteers are such poor leaders that everything falls apart without the energy of war or conflict.

“Once the fanatics and profiteers are gone, the people slowly begin to rebuild, certain that they will never allow the fanatics and profiteers get a foothold on power again. But, generations pass and people forget,.. and without fail it all happens again.” He lets out a big sigh, “over and over again.”

A moment passes and he comes around to see the startled look on his grandson’s face and absorbs it for a few seconds.

“Do me a favor… Forget all this. This copper pot is depressing… the same thing happens over and over again. It is out of our hands. We, the enlightened ones, must live through it over and over again. The only thing that can be done is to stand in peace with the light of truth shining. Those who see it, will understand and avoid catastrophe. Those who do not, will learn their lessons the hard way.” The old man gets up from his chair. “Now. Let us go get some breakfast.” He takes his grandson’s hand and they walk out of the room.