The Fear Of One

"He must be the king. Anyone else would be arrested."

The Nude King spat and sat upon his throne.

"I know what the philosopher said: "Some men see things as they are and say, Why? But I dream things that never were and say, Why not?" But I say unto you: Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' But I look at things as they are and say, Why me?"

He was the most miserable man in the kingdom but if a ruler cannot be happy then who can? Like many who seek the illusion of power, the king was a victim of his own success. His defiant, nude body strutted down main street in the annual parade in complete confidence not one word of disagreement would be uttered of his new "clothes". In this he was correct. But his lie was a trap.

Having "won", the king was now forced into a nude state 24/7, for how could he defend going back to regular clothing having declared himself already clothed? A king is not a king without those who agree to his illusion of power, so what to do if he lost support? After several months wearing not a scrap of clothing and facing the prospect of a nude life until death, this predicament put the king into a frenzied state.

His loyally lying subjects did not fare much better. They saw their job as to be loyal subjects to support the king in his decisions no matter what. In this they did their monarch no favors. The sheeple were as puppets who sought to be stringed by their ruler into manipulated maneuvers. They became a nation of addicts - addicted to the sound of silence. No one dare say a word of the truth, their "code" of common sense.

Vexed by this quagmire, the king feared it was only a matter of time before people woke up. So he decided to do the only thing he knew: he sought to re-inforce his power. He knew he had to do something because he felt more stupid each passing nude day. A Loyalty Oath was decreed for every man, woman, and speaking child. Everyone but Ogilvy, the town drunk, complied. And he would have except for, you know, he was drunk. But the king could not live with even one person having not taken the oath, however unintentional it might be. Inebriated as always, Ogilvy stood before the king.

"You got no clothes on, dude!"

A guard prodded him. "The king most certainly does have clothes on, you moron. You're just stupid to see them."

"What you talking about, Willis? I can see his dick clear as day!"

Drunken Ogilvy was unable to fight back as he was struck down for treason to the lie (this also made him unable to take the oath). To prove the purity of their faith, the drunkard was put before a firing squad and killed by faithful followers. Many articles were written in the local paper on the solemn and deep faith of those who shot Ogilvy. But as time passed, each of the executioners in turn shot himself. "It's not OK to do something just because someone tells you to!" explained one suicide note.

But it was said: "We must believe in our king! There is no other way!"

Having complete loyalty claimed was still not enough for the nude monarch. Since he believed that to put clothes on now would be the height of insanity, his next move was to make a formal declaration: "Great news! The clothes of the king shall now be the clothes of everyone! Rejoice!"

The sheeple rejoiced with their lips but not their hearts. But like the king, rather than admit their foolishness, they doubled down on it. Parents filled with shame screamed at their children to comply. (High school scores plummeted for boys as nothing on the chalkboard could enthrall them within a mile of a naked cheerleader.) A sense of despair hung over the land in a surreal disbelief.

Let's just say attendance was up

But it was said: "We must believe in our king! There is no other way!"

For a while the Nude King took great satisfaction in viewing his nude kingdom, as misery shared proved a tonic for misery alone. He closed his eyes and hoped this would be enough to ease his anguish. It was not to be.

The surrounding clothed kingdoms started to mock the Nude King and his nude peasants. Fearing he'd be made to look a fool, he did the most foolish thing possible: he declared war. That gave the ruler the desired effect of unity and high polling numbers but the war was a different matter altogether.

"Why are we going to kill people because of something we chose to do?"

But it was said: "We must believe in our king! There is no other way!"

For the king, the war was even more of a disaster: he won. In defeat he could have returned to his clothes wearing ways. Many of those who returned from battle were also defeated through "victory", killing themselves for having killed without reason. (Yet none of the generals who gave the orders committed suicide.) Just as the remorseful executioners declared "It's not OK to do something just because someone tells you to!", so now did soldiers by the thousands die by their own hand, even more than were killed in combat.

The king was out of options. On whom could he blame his woes now?? This begot the era of evil purges for those who were nude but not "nude enough", therefor endangering national security. Rather than admit the mistakes of the past, the kingdom clung to its lies as a moral stance. "We must continue to kill or we'd have to admit all the killing we did before was wrong!" It was deemed they had no choice but to live their lives as naked killers. The prospect they were responsible for their own choices was just too horrible to consider.

We don't wish to look the fool by questioning our comfy lives

What the king needed most was an enemy/savior. "I say unto you: there is one among us who deceives us! He walks among us as we do, but he is not one of us. He is the Great Betrayer who brings death to our land. We must find this person and kill him before he destroys us all!"

This command was very popular with the sheeple whose lives now had a given purpose. There was much excited speculation on talk shows of just who the Great Betrayer was and the best methods to "smoke him out." Enterprising shysters cashed in with "Betrayer tests" they sold to be administered to "friends and family so you can rest easy at night that the Betrayer is not in your house."

But although each person knew they were not the Betrayer, each still feared to be. Having detached from reality by following the king's orders, doubt's unreality started to seep in like the angel of death. "There is no truth!" And without truth, how could any one person not know if in fact they were the Betrayer? Hysteria swept the land, mass shootings breaking out from self-paranioa. But while many blamed the bullet none blamed their lies.

How could the king ever be set free? The entire kingdom was aching to be set free of their insane nude ways! And the only way they could see to accomplish this was by complete and utter self-annihilation. "If the truth cannot save us then death must! If only we could find one person who disagrees so that we may live! Oh, the humanity!"

Since they had opened themselves up to the possibility, a clothed savior rose up saying it was time for all to clothe themselves. But on this the Nude King did pounce. "Aha! My plan worked! We have found our traitor and Betrayer. We must remain vigilant and remember we cannot tolerate even one voice of dissent! It's time to come to our senses and realize there is no other way than the path we are on. Let us each gather a rock to strike down this agent of destruction; a man who mocks our ways and would have us be fools in perpetuity. Chant with me now: Kill the Betrayer! Kill the Betrayer!"

And thus started the chant as every hand large and small picked up a rock - and hurled it towards the king, ending his reign of error forever.

"But..but...I thought we had to believe in the king!"

"No. We only have to believe in ourselves."