The Empty King

The Empty King    -   in Persian    تاج‌گذاریِ تهی 

By John Kazerooni

Once, in a quiet corner of the world, there were two kinds of homes. Some were full of the messy, happy noise of love. Others were filled with expensive sofas and gold clocks, but they felt cold and silent. They were beautiful, but they were empty.

In one of these rich houses, a boy grew up. He never had to ask for anything. Doors opened for him before he even reached for the handle. Food appeared before he felt hungry. His feet only ever touched soft, thick carpets. Because he had everything, he learned the value of nothing.

His parents were like shadows. His father was always busy with work, and his mother was lost in a world of jewelry and parties. They gave him every toy, but they never gave him their time. No one ever really talked to his heart.

The boy grew up without any "no" in his life. He never learned to care for others because he never had to. To him, power was easy, but he had no idea why he was alive. He learned a scary lesson: that he could do whatever he wanted without any consequences. He began to feel like he was better than everyone else.

At school, he didn't make friends; he made lists. He looked at people like tools. In the empty space where his soul should have been, a quiet meanness grew. He found that he didn't need to hit someone to hurt them. A cold look or a sharp word was enough. He started to enjoy making others feel small. People stayed silent around him because they were afraid, but he thought their silence meant they agreed with him.

He grew up to be a strong, handsome man. But inside, he was still a hollow shell. He only cared about people if they were useful to him. He saw the world as a game of numbers and money. Since no one ever stopped him or told him he was wrong, he stayed in his own little world where he was always right.

The outside world didn't really know him, but they saw his wealth. In a world that has forgotten how to listen, money speaks very loudly. People saw his ego and called it "confidence." They saw his coldness and called it "discipline." They saw his empty heart and called it "honesty."

And so, with their eyes closed, the people put a crown on his head. They chose him to lead them.

But how can you choose a leader that no one truly knows? 

How can you trust a man who has never listened to a single person? 

He had never walked in the dirt with the people or felt their pain, yet there he was, sitting at the top.

He ruled for a while. At first, things looked okay, but then everything started to break. There wasn't enough food because he didn't understand how to share. People lost their jobs because he didn't value hard work. Soon, it became a crime to tell the truth because the truth made him look bad.

Then came war. When a leader cannot feel the pain of others, it is easy for him to send them to die. Lives became just numbers on a page. Many people were lost, and the world grew dark.

Now, when it is too late, we ask: Who is to blame?

Is it the boy who was never taught how to be human?

Is it the parents who gave him everything except love?

Is it the school that taught his brain but forgot his soul?

Or is it the people who saw his money and stopped asking questions?

The answer is hard. A child doesn't create emptiness; he is born into it. A house can be a palace and still be a desert. A society that thinks wealth is the same thing as goodness will eventually bow down to a monster of its own making.

A man does not rise to the top alone. He is carried there by the silence and the mistakes of everyone around him. In the end, the sad part isn't just that he was a bad king. The real tragedy is that the people were the ones who gave him the crown.

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