Once upon a time, there was a land with a group of free people. They loved their land and their lack of wars. They were prosperous. They weren't without problems, but their situation was a lot better than the far off lands they knew.
These far off lands were lands of perpetual war. They had poverty and disease, more than the free land with free people.
The free people had made two big mistakes. These mistakes had changed their lives and their children's lives. They had got involved in two wars in the far off lands, lost many of their boys and girls to those wars, and made the world less stable. The only good thing about these mistakes is that the people had declared the wars and had not had a king do the declaring for them.
Soon the free people wanted a king. They wanted a king, because all the far off lands had a king or someone like a king and they wanted to fit in. So, they got themselves a king (at least, he acted like a king and ruled like a king and got into wars whenever he wanted to, like a king).
There was much evil in the far off lands. Some of the kings and peoples in the far off lands were going to destroy the whole world, or at least enslave it. The newly-kinged people thought that if they didn't do something, that they were going to be destroyed or enslaved. Their king sent their boys and girls off to battles and wars in the far off lands. Wars kept springing up here and there and each war killed many of their soldier boys and girls and spent the people's money.
Other lands rose up and threatened the people, because the other lands were sick of the newly-kinged people being over there, like a nagging babysitter trying to stop daily sandbox fights. The other people of the other lands attacked the once-free people. The once-free people got into war again. And again. And were talking about starting another war.
Some of the people began to worry. "We can't pay for these wars. We're out of money! Our sons and daughters are dying over there! But if we don't get those evil people in those other lands, they'll get us!" The king and his subjects were scared and couldn't sleep.
So that was the dilemma, go fight more and spend borrowed money and have their sons and daughters killed in ever sprouting conflicts, or leave them alone and perhaps the evil people would destroy all the peoples of the earth.
Some people thought that maybe this war would not waste money and kill the people's soldier children.
An old man came forward and told the people a piece of wisdom that he had heard from another wise person. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." The old man also said that the people should follow the golden rule, but the people didn't understand what gold had to do with anything.
But the people were worried about their enemies throughout the world, and so they ignored the old man and his "wisdom."
So the people fought until they had a currency crisis and couldn't buy a piece of bread. Their enemies didn't blow up the world after all, but it other damage had been done. The once-free land had fallen into economic crises and had let themselves become enslaved.
The End (but it doesn't have to be)
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