Lying Is Love

Many years had passed since the boy who pointed out the emperor wore no clothes was crucified. The boy had foolishly jeopardized defense contract negotiations by making the king look silly thus he had to be stopped before the kingdom was destroyed. "His unrealistic idealism of speaking the truth gives aid and comfort to our enemies and undermines the king's authority to rule. This may seem cruel but we must be pragmatic and protect the king. So sayeth we the good people."

After that, all children and any other truth-tellers were declared enemies of the state. The king had "Truth is treason!" posters plastered on every building in the kingdom. Pollsters went door-to-door after every nude parade. "Did you like the king's clothes? Does the king tell the truth?" When children overheard their parents' lying in response they asked why. "Because the truth makes people mad. Making people mad is bad. Always lie to the pollsters. You see: lying is love."

Of course, anytime children were caught lying to their parents, the children had the shit beat out of them. In the king's country, betrayal was the national religion, though its official name was "Oath of Loyalty". Great ceremonies were had upon taking the Oath and lofty praise heaped upon the participants. The king, it seemed, could not get enough loyalty. He saw enemies everywhere and even a solitary dissent meant ruin in his mind. This is because the king was trapped.

Having made everyone swear he wore beautiful clothes he was stuck in nude hell until death. As each day passed, it became harder and harder to admit his fraudulent life to once again wear actual clothes. Forcing denial down his throat on a daily basis, he lived a life of self-rape, craving to come clean but never daring. "As long as I keep doubling down I'll be safe." But time was his truest enemy, realizing more every day of his own ridiculousness - and never ever admitting to himself that the entire kingdom already knew the truth. Most embarrassing of all: he kept up the charade for nothing.

Other kingdoms laughed and ridiculed the nude king and his followers, mocking their loyalty oaths to stupidity. This was very embittering to the kingdom. "No one would think we're dumb if you didn't say it!" Outside kingdoms were called loser elitists (Yeah, I know. No one caught the contradiction). The king would engage in bizarre and indecent acts such as public masturbation and urinating on peasants simply to enrage his critics. "Look at our king! He's the great disrupter! Haha! Not so dumb now, are we!" But at the end of the day, this made them only more isolated and miserable.

An inner fear began spreading across the land as hope and sanity slipped away. A sad frightening circus of insanity trumped reality in a way never seen before. Self-hate groups sprang up, claiming their patriotism by immolation from the king "who's never wrong!" Traitors were to be found under every bush. Public masturbators followed in the king's footsteps of hate. "Take that you elitist sane kingdoms!" But nothing was ever enough. Pain pervaded every pore. The lying was like wrestling an undefeatable monster and the people feared they'd never leave its abyss.

I bet your right!

Finally, his soul on fire, fearing his truth more than death, the king became engulfed in self-terror. "They want to kill us, to destroy us in the worst way!" he declared, referring to himself of course. He gathered up the self-hate groups (about a third of the population), told them their problems were not their fault, and said for them to kill with impunity anyone they hated. Many, fearing to be targets, joined the self-hate groups but eventually there was no one left to kill but themselves, calling out one another for "not being a true self-hater and a secret life lover."

As with any story, truth won out in the end, the king ordering others to lose their souls as he had lost his. Unrepentant laughter twisted its way into howling tears of mortal terror. Amid the smoldering ruins a statue was erected by the surviving kingdoms of the small boy who spoke truth to power. The king and his followers were doomed to forever infamy in the pages of history to be eternally mocked. Had they come clean at any point they could have saved themselves - but everything they did to save them brought ultimate ruin. The future lies only with love - and truth is love.