The Pied Piper Of Morons

De: Tales From The Side Of The Brexit Bus

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

A darkly comic political fable for our troubled times

Once upon a time, in a land not as far away as we might wish, there lived a very rich man who decided he wanted to be King. He wasn't clever, but he was louder than those who were, and that, it turned out, was enough.

Armed with nothing but a magical mirror that showed him only what he wished to see, a golden carriage shaped like a pint of ale, and an inexhaustible supply of grievance, he set out to convince a kingdom that its problems came from wolves at the door, from distant towers, from anyone but the powerful men who had actually caused them. He promised that breaking chains would bring back a golden age that had never existed, that sovereignty meant prosperity, that three hundred and fifty million gold pieces would flow weekly to the healing houses. The people believed him. The people voted. The rich man won, and promptly vanished, leaving others to discover that breaking things is easier than building them, that freedom without friendship is just another word for loneliness, and that the man who shouted "Betrayal!" loudest was the greatest betrayer of all.

Part political satire, part grim fairy tale, The Pied Piper Of Morons follows its antihero through decades of misdirection: through the plague he first denied then claimed to have always taken seriously, through seven failed attempts to win a crown he declared victory in losing, through the castle he bought with "found gold" in a town he never visited, whose constituents he hid from in the rhododendron bushes rather than hear their complaints. It is a story of how easily anger can be bottled and sold, how shameless repetition can pass for truth, and how a man who loves only himself can convince thousands that he loves them most of all.

Funny, furious, and unexpectedly moving, this is a story for anyone who has watched a demagogue ride to power on promises of milk and honey and wondered how the milk turned sour and the honey never came. It is for the children of the kingdom who inherited a smaller, meaner world than the one they were promised. And it is for anyone who still believes, against all evidence, that the oldest magic, the magic of admitting we were wrong, of beginning again, of choosing cooperation over fear, might yet save us from the worst of our own natures.

The mirror reflects what it reflects. The purple flags still flutter. And somewhere in the distance, the carriage rolls on.

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