The Fraudulent King's Speech

I think I'll this one speak for itself. Thanks for the feedback.  Approx 2,300 words

The Fraudulent King’s Speech

“…[T]here is no such thing as cold, objective reality that is solid, fixed and not open to interpretation. Inevitably, we are to some extent creating a fiction in every second of our lives, the fiction of who we are, what our lives are about, the meanings that we give to things… Obviously there are some occasions when the fictions that we base our lives upon lead us into some terrifying territory.”

Alan Moore

The King was not Himself in those final days. His muttered ramblings of ‘illusions’ and ‘nonsense held up on stilts’ should have been an indication of the deterioration of His faculties. Still, the lunatic ramblings of His last public address could never have been foreseen. I shall repeat it as faithfully as I can in due course but it should be apparent that His words were inappropriate for the Lord of Our Fairest of Nations. The King’s physical state appeared to be far more rapid in its decline. The cough was incessant and the constant production of fluid led to an acute awareness among the closest staff and confidantes that our King’s reign was rapidly coming to its termination.

In those last days, He paced rampantly as He spluttered and muttered. Most of us took it for the bitter musings of a man coming to terms with His mortality. If there is anyone who is less aware of the encroaching shadow of death than an almighty leader, I am at a loss who to speculate who he may be.

(Indeed, if I may digress from my account further into still more speculative musings, I would suggest that, in a way, a monarch’s perceived immortality is less an illusion and more a case of understanding that a monarch is not a man; he is a title, a concept; an entity beyond the individual. Who thinks of their leader as a human being? As a mere mortal? Who cares for his personality over what he represents? He is far less who he is and far more what he is. That is a leader’s burden.)

(And if I may explore this idea further – is not the reverse true? Do the subjects not become merely a mass? Each individual an irrelevance to a leader, who must rule all of them but not each of them: a king does not think about how his decrees affect people but The People. He must remove himself of sentiment if he is to rule effectively. Again, this is the leader’s burden. And the people’s burden too.)

As I was explaining, there was a misperception that the King’s ramblings were that of Him facing His certain, rapidly impending demise. However, it transpires that we misperceived the King’s concerns – indeed His concerns regarding His own misperception. I suppose His communications with us closest to Him should have hinted at his true musings but that is a comment borne out of the gift of hindsight. In short, our misperception was reasonably misperceived.

I recall one conversation that perhaps indicated that more was amiss than the comprehensible concern of death. In those last days, the King asked me what was the most impressive legend or rumour that I had heard told about He and His reign. I shared the oft-told legend of the battle against the army of our rival nation, where the King had been known to arrive to lead our soldiers with a rousing speech – and, not only that, but to be first into the fray, successfully shedding the blood of four hundred enemy soldiers alone!

“Do they believe it?” He asked.

“They believe it enough to tell it, sir.” I replied, “They believe it enough to want to believe it.”

“But can there truly be comfort in such falsehoods? Especially one as inconceivable as this?”

“My Lord,” I said, shielding my astonishment, “there is more than comfort in such tales. There is justification for you and your position. If men battle for you, that shows they accept you as their leader. But if men battle behind you, that shows they are right to accept you as their leader. Especially if you commit such feats. To rally for a king is one thing, but to rally behind a king! Much less important than its truth is its meaning – it means you are one to be followed, to be admired, to be worshipped! Is there a comfort in these falsehoods? I’d say there is a truth in these falsehoods! The legend is more important than the truth because it reveals a greater truth.”

“That’s a contradictory web you have just spun.”

“To say a lie can express a truth – I do not view a contradiction.”

The King stared into space.

“The illusions we create for ourselves…” He said, sick with wonder.

And, of course, it was His sickness that dominated our concern. His physical failings demanded more immediate attention than His ill state of mind. His last days had to be made comfortable. Perhaps it would have been wise to spend at least a little more time on His mental disturbances.

For when it came to the King’s last address – His final farewell to His subjects – we expected sadness and a sombre, serious speech. However, we did not expect the wild ravings of a man gone mad.

I will now relay the speech as accurately as is appropriate. I omit the intermittent coughs, heavy and hacking, for ease of flow and reading. However, be assured that where His emotions were most animated and His voice most intense, His words often spilled over into spluttered spitting, making Him mercifully difficult to comprehend. Indeed, His physical state helped to give credence to the view that the King’s words should be approached cautiously. If a man is sick then he needs to be cared for, not listened to. For the King may be infallible but the man is not. And on that day, the speech was given by much less a king than a mortal and miserable man.

The speech was delivered thusly:

“My people. I come before you as a dying man. I stand here today to speak honestly with you. To console you regarding my passing and to direct you to happier times. I will share with you some truths; truths which will be shocking but that I tell with kindness, with you at the centre of my concerns.

(Only now can I see the sinister undertones in what appears to be a commendable and considered opening!)

“I stand here before you on numbered days. I am clearly aware – clearer than I ever have been – of my own frailty and humanity. We like to think of our leaders as gods – well-intended, superior and, though we know it to be untrue, immortal. We cannot imagine an existence without our leaders but our leaders change. Your leaders change. Your systems change. There was a time when consultation with the king was little more than an exercise in sycophantic flattery. Now the consultation is genuine – there is consideration of your situation when the leader makes a decision. In short, your position has progressed and my rule has been softer than the rulers previous. In consideration of this fact, my position has progressed also.

And so, systems change, orders change, the world does change and kings as well.

We have to realise that it is an innocence that makes you believe that I am, in a sense, permanent. Your innocence perceives me as an individual that is an institution. The institution is permanent, so I am permanent.

But I am not permanent. I am temporary. Finite and frail is my life, exactly as is yours. Granted, in many ways our lives differ significantly. Mine is a position of power and privilege. It is a position that is universally acknowledged and accepted. We all have our different places in this order but in one way our places are the same – they are places that outlast us. They are places that are eventually filled by someone else.

And now my place is to be filled by someone else. My frailty has come to reveal itself in the starkest terms. We see that it is a mistake to see our leaders as permanent, an innocent illusion.

And are perhaps our other perceptions of leaders illusions also? Is it also perhaps naïve to consider our leaders well-intended and superior? For what makes me superior to you? Is it my permanence? I have told you clearly that this is a falsehood. Is it my position of privilege? That seems to me to be a circular argument. I am in a position of superiority because I am superior. I am superior because I am in a position of superiority. This defines my position but it does not justify it.

Perhaps it is my good intentions, my perceived infallibility? My power to choose what is right.

Today, I tell you something. A statement sincere that applies to myself and every other leader. It applies to every other would-be God. My intentions are only so far well-intended. As my frailty is as real as yours, so my fallibility is as real as yours. To believe otherwise is more innocence.

And, ultimately, what is innocence apart from excusable ignorance?

Today I take away your innocence. Your ignorance may no longer be excused. I pardon it no more. I condone it no more.

For in revealing my fallibility, I reveal my injustice. My superiority is tradition, is custom. You accept the order because you refuse to question, to scrutinise, to demand something else. You believe me infallible, so you refuse to question. Your lac k of questioning helps to reinforce the myth that I am infallible. You accept my superiority so you defer power, which, in turn, creates my superiority. You see me as unchanging and immortal, which is why, though I die, there will be another king. The order of things is not accepted because it is inevitable; it is inevitable because you accept it.

And so today, I ask you: should you accept it? Today, I ask you to scrutinise, to question. Should I, or anyone else, stand before you like a giant or a God? When I am as frail, flawed and prone to fault as you are, can it be right to support my position?

I cannot see that.

In truth, your blind acceptance made me blind. The illusions you succumbed to, I succumbed to them too. I saw my privilege as justified. It is only through staring at death do I see this illusion for the damaging lie that it is.

For who benefits best from this situation? I do! And then all those I surround myself with, all those that sneak in close to me. We may consider you but it’s only so that we can continue to clasp to power. We want you to think of us as infallible and untouchable so that way we can continue to be infallible and untouchable. We want you to see us as Gods so that we may live like Gods. You may curse your worth but you cannot question the order of things. And until you question, your worth is cursed.

I stand before you today as a dying man. Not a king, not a title, but a man. I have led you too long. The legacy of my rule and the rulers before me has been for too long. And this is a reality that is so easy to change. Because it’s not real at all. It is as real as you choose to make it. So, when you first respond to me – or anyone else – as your leader, your response should be ‘why?’ And after you have explained the ‘why’ the response to me – or any other would-be king – standing as your leader should be ‘no.’

You told a story of me that I slew 400 men in battle. An absurdity but you believed the lie. The story gave you faith and you had faith in the story. Your faith gave you comfort in an uncomfortable reality. I am a lie. It is time for me to die. It is time for the lie to die.

Do not mourn what you may lose over the next few days. Celebrate what you could win.”

The question I ask upon recounting the King’s words is: can you kill a king for treason against himself? The answer is irrelevant, I suppose, as He died hours later. But it is an interesting consideration for future concerns. For the King – as He made quite clear – not only betrayed Himself but His legacy, both past and future. Still, at least we have a future to be concerned about, for the King’s rule remains. The King did cause a storm and upset our nation but not by igniting a demand for republicanism. They wanted to know, to understand why the King would try to wreak such havoc, to cause such confusion and provoke such questioning. When confronted with the King’s thoughts, the people recoiled. They rejected the King that would have them reject the King. For the people understand the order of things. Things are so because they should be so.

And so the old King is gone, his malicious monologue largely forgotten. There is a new King, currently at ease ruling His subjects. No one questions and no one doubts. Which is just as well, for if order does not sit in the people’s minds, then order must be preserved through force. For even if this way of existing was a ‘nonsense on stilts’, it has a military might sufficient to help it keep the balance. But it is not a nonsense on stilts, it is a truth in mind – irresistible and immovable. The seeds of revolution cannot take root on the stony ground of convention. Everything stays the same, and it is with pleasure that I may proclaim:

The king is dead, long live the king!