The King’s Dimwitted Son

I wrote this diary a little over a year ago under the name of shruticounseling for dkos. It is my favorite entry and I never felt like it was appropriate for that site but couldn’t find an appropriate home for it. It is more of an essay. As I have been reading this site for the last several days, it has come to mind that this is perhaps a more appropriate home for it. Only time wilt tell. Here it is.

In my view Nature has little patience with dynasties. Instead Nature favors a cyclical system of checks and balances in which power is given and then quickly taken away after its purpose is served. To accomplish this, the universe has a variety of instruments and programs for reestablishing dharma or right living/duty. One of the great programs Nature has at its disposal for correcting imbalances is called “the King’s dimwitted son”.

All archetypes or personality types exist for a reason and play specific roles in the evolutionary process of the human condition. To redistribute horded wealth and power, for instance, there is no better instrument than “the King’s dimwitted son.” The King himself in this case is a man of great stature and ability who comes from a long line of similar leaders among men. He typically has flourished even while surrounded by controversy and has overcome great challenges in order to provide his subjects with peace and prosperity. Even though his family has given generations of such men to the world, it is inevitable that even this noble line will give birth to a dimwit of hostile proportions.

The dimwitted son possesses none of the positive qualities of his father, the King. He has neither the raw ability nor the drive to become the man his father is. Sensing this painful truth lurking behind every event and interaction, the dimwitted son sets about portraying himself as a brave and noble hero despite all evidence to the contrary. He bullies all who attempt to tell him the truth. Even if this son somehow had some small talent for governing competently, the circumstances of his life will be sure to thwart cultivating these higher qualities. Due to the sheer wealth and power of the royal family, everything is handed to the dimwitted son throughout his young years. He is pampered in every possible way and saved from ever having to face the controversies or challenges that might have strengthened his character. Instead he is given cushy assignments he might be able to fulfill without embarrassing himself or his family. When he fails even at these, he is bailed out by the powers that be. The dimwitted son becomes a young man who believes he can do no wrong and that no matter what he decides to do, it will turn out great.

Deep inside the King’s dimwitted son knows his real nature and knows he will never measure up to the King. He resents his father and often senses his father’s shame in having sired such a son. Years pass by and in due course the dimwitted son eventually becomes the king. As could be expected, in the role of king the dimwitted son does what he does best. He fails. Meanwhile, after years of peace and prosperity, the monarchy itself has grown soft and the people selfish and entitled.

The dimwitted son cannot find within himself the discipline to be bothered by the monotony of governing so a smooth talking shadow comes to his rescue. The shadow constantly murmurs to the dimwitted son about what a great king he is and what a mark he will make on history. The dimwit is an easy target after all. He trusts the shadow implicitly and embraces his ideas. Having no real plans to govern himself, the dimwit allows the shadow to rule from the shadows in his stead. The shadow is dark, paranoid and destructive by nature. He sets up an elaborate structure of defenses to ensure his own security and prosperity and moves forward with dark plans of his own. The only real decisions the dimwit makes are ones that inevitably destroy his father’s kingdom. Destructive by nature, both the dimwit and the shadow thrive on breaking whatever or whoever crosses their path. They surround themselves with others with the same annihilative tendencies and go to work. The dimwitted son destroys the kingdom because he hates his father; the shadow destroys the kingdom because he hates humanity. The affects, however, are the same. The kingdom is changed so radically as to be almost unrecognizable.

No matter what are our specific views of God or nature, we can see that destructive work is an ever-present part of the system that all life exists in. Something is created, nurtured and eventually destroyed and absorbed back into the whole. The dimwitted son, in his way, is doing Nature’s work. By destructively bringing down the kingdom, disproportionate distributions of power and resources are eventually re-balanced so that a newly made kingdom can eventually rise up.

When a company, family, government, kingdom, religion or any other institution of human creation begins to hoard its resources and the people within it tend toward selfishness, laziness and a sense of entitlement, the personality profile of the King’s dimwitted son cannot be far behind. When he finally does rise to power, the bloated, unnatural system he rules will become fractured beyond repair for the dimwit is doing Nature’s work and it will support him with as many catastrophes as are necessary to perfect his destructive masterpiece.
In a perfect universe filled with checks and balances, the King’s dimwitted son is one of Nature’s most efficient “checks” as he can easily destroy hundreds of years of work in just a few short years. If you are living in such a system and see the dimwit steering you towards the abyss, it is time you came up with plan B as evolution is certainly taking you and yours in a new direction.