Righter Sights

Once upon a time there was a beautiful city created by an invisible giant, he called it “Righter Sights.”

Many people wanted to live in this city, because the invisible giant let them say whatever they wanted. The giant was very accommodating and would let anybody live in his city and say what they wanted. All they had to do was pay a tax in gold and they could stay for a while. The only rule was you had to be nice to each other. How long they could say what they wanted, depended on how much gold they gave to the giant.

People left the gold in a big bucket in the middle of the city called a “pie-pail.” When it was time for more gold, the people would find an envelope attached to the door of their hovel telling them they had to pay more gold if the wanted to say anything anymore, but they could still stay in the city and give opinions.

The people liked the city where they were able to say what the wanted and have fun. If they had something to say, they had to deposit leaves from a rare tree which only grew in the giant’s garden. If the people said nice and helpful things about the people who said something, the giant would send them some leaves.

When they had enough leaves, they could say something. Mostly the giant didn’t listen to what they said, and let his elves, Mikkrochov and Snolepos pin envelopes on a big oak tree in the city square called, “the post,” with the things they said and some leaves inside.

The people could deposit as many leaves as the wanted and the more they gave, the more leaves the elves left in the envelopes. In order to get to the leaves in the envelopes the other people had to replace the envelope with another envelope with their opinion inside. They were also expected to leave little golden seeds (which didn’t grow into plants and had no nutritional value) as a reward. The more they liked what was said, the more golden seeds they could leave.

Everybody wanted to get lots of envelopes with helpful opinions. It made them feel what they said was worthwhile. However, some people said really good things and always got lots of golden seeds. The other people became jealous because they didn’t get so many golden seeds and they began to crave them because it felt good to have them, even though they didn’t grow into plants and couldn’t be eaten.

Soon some people worked out the more leaves they gave the giant, the more leaves the elves left in their envelopes on the post, and more people would replace them with envelopes containing golden seeds. Also, because the people left lots of leaves in their envelopes the others felt obliged to leave more seeds, because it looked like the person leaving the envelope on the post had worked very hard to get the leaves.

It was not long before some folks complained to the giant because some people worked very hard and could leave envelopes with lots of leaves. They said it was not fair because not everybody could say so much or had the time to exchange lots of envelopes with opinions in for leaves.

The giant thought about this a long time. He wasn’t a bad giant and he didn’t know what to do. He felt terrible, all he wanted was to please people and let them say what they wanted, but he also thought it was only fair that the people should pay him some gold for the cost of building the city and for his food. Of course, being a giant he had a big appetite.

The giant thought and thought for a long time. The city was getting bigger and he needed more elves to put the envelopes on the post, and they had to be paid. Elves didn’t grow on trees after all.

Suddenly he had a wonderful idea. People who were pushed for time could buy his leaves with gold. Also, so that the people who worked hard and wrote really good stuff to get leaves, he wanted to reward them. He decided to let six of the best ones be Mayors for a few days and the things they said would be put on the post in gold coloured envelopes so everybody knew they contained lots of leaves.

This idea became very popular and a lot of people wanted their things put in golden envelopes, so they worked even harder, but the giant forgot about one thing. Some people had more gold than others and could buy lots of leaves from the giant. Often they pinned golden envelopes with really stupid things inside the on the post. Because the envelopes contained so many leaves, people always left lots of seeds with good opinions. They said nice things even if they didn’t mean it because they wanted the leaves. They didn’t want to upset the ones who left the golden envelopes because they could ask the elves to stop the people who wrote nasty opinions to stop and hence cut off their leaf supply.

The people became frustrated, but carried on because they liked saying what they wanted and it was fun, even if the opinions were diluted.

One day, a naïve person got a soap box and stood on it in the middle of the square and started to shout very loudly. He complained people with lots of gold could buy false opinions with gold and get many seeds and prevent serious people from being listened to. When this happened the serious people (and there were many) began shouting, “here! here!” And they asked the giant what he was going to do about it.

The giant became very angry – this kind of thing would start to eat into his supply of gold, which by now was very considerable because so many people bought his leaves. He appeared in the square – he was of terrible countenance. and he picked up the person on the soapbox between finger and thumb and squashed him right before everybody’s eyes. Everybody was afraid and went home and carried on putting their envelopes on the post like before and never complained again.

As time went by, the city continued to prosper and the giant prospered and started building other cities with his gold so he could make more gold. The people in the city carried on saying what they wanted to say and had fun doing it, but deep down they were aware that they would never know if the things they said were good or rubbish – even those who paid for with extra leaves because they always got lots of seeds.

This isn't an ABCfairytale

Image courtesy of Wiki