Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat

Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat

Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. THOSE WHOM God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason.

And so the tale is told.

The king’s dominion was unravelling. It was in the throes of a debilitating spiritual crisis.

The king was evil. His spirit hung over the kingdom like a cancerous fog.

The people suffered. The people complained. There was persecution everywhere.  There was gnashing of teeth everywhere.

Afflicted with malignant narcissism, the king’s other disease, and which would be his undoing, was his unhinged pride. Having no ears for anyone, his word was law.  He loved to hear himself speak. He thought himself as God.

If I were you, I would be praising me all the time. He was repeatedly heard telling the citizens of his dominion.

I am the best king you have ever had, he would add. As a matter of fact, you should have made me king earlier.

Unlike the others, I am the brainy one. Some of you, possessed with jealousy and malice, just hate me because of my ethnicity.

Amongst the discerning citizens, and the sages in the kingdom, such utterances of the king were viewed as suspicious and concerning. They bordered on a subtle cognitive disorder.

They were a cause for worry. They were also a source of both embarrassment and wonder in the citizens.

The king was evidently full of himself. He often reminded the people that they were fortunate to have him.

He had conquered all the rival tribes in his kingdom. He had also driven out into exile anyone that he had deemed inimical to his interests.

Further, he silenced all organisations of the people, political groupings, civil society fora, institutions of democracy which the people had established for themselves for their own wellbeing. He considered all these a threat to his hold on power.

As the case is with all tyrants, he was insecure and paranoid. Praise for him was his daily staple.

No one spoke in the kingdom. Fear reigned. The people’s freedoms were curtailed. The kingdom began to feel like a slave post.

He told the citizens that all power came from him. And in exercise of this power, he established his own gods and demanded that the citizens should abandon their own gods and begin to worship his.

Dear reader, kings emerge and kings disappear. Empires are born and empires die.

There is no king nor emperor that lasts for ever. This then is the immutable cyclical nature of life.

What defines a shepherd is the flock. A shepherd’s conduct, therefore, is not a function of his freedom or free will. His behaviour and character are determined by the integrity of the flock, the needs and wants of the flock. The flock holds the shepherd captive and not the other way round.

Similarly, there is no one who can be king by himself. It is the people who make the king.

The people and the king are one. It follows then that any king who mistreats the people, only destroys his kingship, his own rulership.

All rulers on earth possess only delegated authority. There is not a single one of them that has power of governance by himself.

All kings or rulers are transient entities. They are impermanent phenomena.

Any king that boasts about his office is a fool. Obedience to the people defines leaders.

When a king does not meet the dictates of the people, he fails. The success of any king then is merely obedience to the demands of the existential framework which thrives and prospers the people.

What upset the king the most was that, expecting them to, a sizeable number of the citizens did not bow to him. They openly told him that they only respected and worshipped something superior to him, an authority far larger than him.

The king was not only stunned but he was also offended. What authority was that? Who could be superior to him? Who could have more power than he had? Affronted, he openly and brutally admonished them.

This then is how many in the kingdom were persecuted and tortured.

Some were flogged in the courtyard of his palace in full view of thousands of citizens. This mode of punishment was done in public as a clear message to the others. It was meant to be a deterrent.

Others were forcibly driven out of the village. They were forced into exile carrying no property with them.

All their property, he seized. He called these proceeds of rebellion.

Others still were thrown into  life-threatening dungeons, dungeons which littered all over the kingdom, literal death traps.

What hurt the king the most was that none of the citizens he punished suffered harm. An invisible force seemed to protect them, an unseen hand shielded them.

Those that were flogged could not feel pain.

Those that were jailed reported experiencing peace whose depth surpassed all understanding.

The exiled merrily sang their way out of the kingdom, singing praises to their God, as if heading to heaven.

That his punishment could not yield the expected outcomes was a source of immense frustration for the king. He tried to change the whips, and even fired the floggers for new ones.

But nothing happened.

Under his reign, witchcraft became a common practice and was encouraged. Instead of hard work, people turned to charms for prosperity.

The king had no respect for anyone save only for himself.

Many were the marriages that he defiled and broke as he decreed that he could have any woman he desired in the kingdom, her marital status notwithstanding. He even pleasured himself with girls fit to be his children, impregnating some, to the shock and outrage of his wives and community.

Then the troubling dreams began.

At one time he dreamt of healthy trees that, with the passage of time, withered, became dry, could not bear fruit and died.

At another time, he dreamt of a powerful lion that ate itself.

One woman who had the gift of interpretation dreams was called to the king’s court. She was one of those that could not bow to his power. Her talent qualified her for the king’s attention.

The drying trees represent your dying reign, she said.  The trees were initially healthy. This represents your ascendancy to the throne. Your ascendancy was a new dawn for this kingdom. It represented change and hope. But the fruitless trees are emblematic of your rulership. It has not borne the required fruit.

‘What about the lion which ate itself?’ The king wanted to know.

The woman, almost as if she had not heard him, went on.

A lion is a symbol of power. That lion is you. That the lion ate itself means that, through your own actions, you have now destroyed yourself.

The king, afflicted with a flight of ideas: ‘I had another dream. This time I saw my predecessor, the king I succeeded. He was sitting on my throne. Though I had been brought before him to be punished, he forgave all my transgressions. What does this dream mean?’

It means change. It means that another king, one better than you, is coming. That he forgave you means that the new king will govern in accordance with the expectations of our Almighty God. He will be devoid of retribution and vengeance.

His voice rising: ‘Who is this Almighty God that you speak of?’

The king became uncomfortable to learn of another entity other than himself referred to as almighty.

The woman, matter-of-factly, in a calm, authoritative voice. This is the creator of all things. The one who made even you. The one whose power you now utilise for your throne. All power comes from Him. He installs kings and queens as He wishes. Obedience to Him is the definition of success. No one succeeds when he or she is not aligned to Him. Even you should begin to respect and worship Him.

Having heard enough, and not liking what he was hearing, he ordered his guards to drag the woman away.

I do not want to see her in my kingdom again. That was the instruction he gave the guards.

Despite her having done a stellar job, her having accurately and impeccably interpreted the king’s dreams, merely done her job, that is how she was exiled that very day.

As punishment, she was not allowed to go with her family. She went alone, leaving her children and husband behind.

She carried with her only pain and suffering.

Petrified by the woman’s revelation that another king was coming, the king issued a decree. He ordered his elite guards to go to every corner of the kingdom and identify anyone that seemed ambitious, a person that could succeed him. Upon finding such a person, they were to kill him.

The guards, executing the decree, thoroughly combed the kingdom for such persons.

A miracle which no one could explain happened. Though the kingdom was teeming with ambitious men, men that were not only ambitious but could also replace the king on any given day, and even do better, the guards, afflicted with momentary blindness, could neither find nor identify such a person.

All of them came back to the king and reported that they had found no one that was ambitious and who could depose the king.

Somehow, upon receiving this flawed report, the king felt peaceful. He sought comfort from his delusion.

Then one day something strange happened.

The king turned up at his office to perform his duties of the day with bare feet.

When one of his assistants asked him why he wasn’t wearing his shoes, he responded that he was more comfortable that way. That he preferred the natural look.

When reminded that shoes were a requirement of his office, that they were part of the office’s formal and ceremonial attire, he reminded his men that his word was final.

Word spread fast that the something yet unknown had addled the king’s mind.

Some whispered that it could be advanced syphilis.  General paralysis of the insane, they called it.

His shocking barefoot show was a State secret. No one was to know. Members of the public were to be kept in the dark about it.

On another day, when all the members of his Leadership Council had gathered for a meeting in his chambers, he turned up bare chested. No shirt, no vest.  Only his sorry pot belly and atrophying pectorals.

A wild ripple of both embarrassment and shock went through the Council. Jaws dropped and many of them gasped their disagreement. Others suggested abdication or impeachment.

Quickly, the king was forcibly ushered back to his chambers by his guards. To avoid any sudden movements and more shame, they put restraints on him.

That morning the Leadership  Council resolved, in the king’s absentia, that, as a matter of the kingdom’s security, a team of the very best medical experts be put together to assess the mental status of the king and make recommendations on the way forward.

It wasn’t long before grand shame and embarrassment of unprecedented proportions came the kingdom.

An annual festival was underway. Citizens from all corners of the kingdom were in attendance. Thousands and thousands of them were present. It was a festival that lasted seven days.

The king’s day was the second. Per tradition, the king officiated on the second day of the festival, by law acknowledging its occurrence and officially opening it.

And as was the custom, Kings and Queens from other lands were present to lend support.

Everyone seated, the king also took his seat.

He looked majestic and imposing in his regalia as he sat on his throne of authority.

Songs were sang and dances were danced. Then it was time for him to give his speech.

The king rose. He approached the podium and began to speak.

His voice booming like thunder, the king: ‘I welcome you all to our land. My land. I welcome you all to our kingdom. My kingdom.

I, king like no other. I am not just king in this kingdom but I am king of other foreign lands as well.

All these kings and queens that are here today are subordinate to me.

I am almighty. I am the King of kings.

I have brought you all abundance and plenty. You all have never had it this good.

I have earned your worship. You must worship me like you do every other deity. Better, worship only me.’

A murmur of disagreement and discomfort was heard amongst the invited dignitaries.

The self-praise was morbid and nauseating.

What offended the citizens the most was that, all this chest-beating and all, came at a time when there was famine and, much, much lack and suffering in the kingdom.

Then suddenly, as if his mind taken over by a potent psychoactive drug, the king began to disrobe.

He started with his Crown. Then he took off his overcoat. Then he removed his trousers. To the consternation of everyone, he also took off his underpants.

Then he moved to to the front of the podium so that everyone could see him properly.

Yes, all in attendance saw him. Children and adults. Foreigners and citizens. What they saw wasn’t kingly at all.

Clearly demented, the king stood there, totally naked.

And as if itself ashamed, his shrivelled and small phallus hang apologetically and limp between his spindly legs, a strong symbolic sight of his office’s impotence.

His frail and aging body was a clear insult to everyone. He looked pitiable.

The king was naked.

The king was without his Crown.

The king was impotent.

The king was only human.

It was all as evident as his madness.

And this time, there was no one to cover and hide his shame.

The humiliation was thorough and florid.

Dear reader, those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first deprive of reason. This is what happened  to the king.

Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.

Pride comes before a fall.

All power belongs to the Supreme Source. It belongs to God.

All that the leaders here on earth possess is only delegated authority. They act only on God’s behalf.

This realisation ought to make all of us, dear reader, both king and pauper, humble.

Nothing lasts forever. Kings follow the same rule.

It is only when rulership is aligned to Divine Order that any king or queen succeeds.

Yes, He lifts up the meek and the lowly. And in similar fashion, He humiliates, causes them to fall and humbles the arrogant and proud.

He occasions in them madness and causes them to eat grass.

By so doing, He occasions the required awakening in the disobedient kings/rulers and, with the same punishment, he also gives priceless lessons to the people.

Dear reader, the end of anything is intrinsic to the thing’s character. Given outcomes follow given steps.

That the king alienated himself from the people, his very foundation, was his undoing. Vox populi, vox dei.

A child, pointing at the nude king,, shouted: ‘He is King Nebuchadnezzar. The wrath of Yahweh is now upon Him.’

Everyone heard the child. His pure words carried to all corners of the kingdom, and beyond. No one ever forgot them.

The king’s successor emerged from the pool of the very people that he had treated badly, the people that he had treated with disdain and persecuted.

And so as is with the never-ending tale of life, again, a slave was lifted. The rejected became the cornerstone.

Godspeed!

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