There was once a king of a little duchy. He wanted to win a gold medal in the Olympics. He knew with his small population (who were only there to do his bidding) that the gene pool was too small to develop a world class athlete.
So he decided to make one.
First he visited the world class athletes in the nations around him, even flew his plane overseas. He asked them how far they could jump, how fast they could run, and how far they could throw a shot put.... He deduced that to be Olympic ready, his athletes would have to jump 8.9 meters, run 200 meters in 19.3 seconds. and throw a standard shot putt 22.5 meters....
That became his standard.... All subjects would be required to jump 8.9 meters, run 200 meters in 19.3 seconds and throw a putt 22.5 meters....
He found none of them could. Therefore he devised he would have to develop his world class athletes from his subjects' children. He then worked backward. At 18 years, if one must jump 8.9 meters, then at age 17 one should jump 8.4 m; at age 16 go 7.9m, and back off half a meter for each year one went back... It charted out like this: (18) 8.9m; (17) 8.4m; (16) 7.9m; (15) 7.4m; (14) 6.9m; (13) 6.4m; (12) 5.9m; (11) 5.4m; (10) 4.9m; (9) 4.4m; (8) 3.9m; (7) 3.4m; (6) 2.9m; and kindergarten...(5)... 2.4 m. That was still 7.87 feet.... So the need for intensive pre-school was apparent... At (4) 1.9m; at (3) 1.4m; at (2) .9m.... and at a babies first year... they should be able to jump 15 inches... After all the king could jump that blindfolded on one foot... How hard could that possibly be? He broke down each task incrementally and set bench marks for each year....
People said it was not going to work. The king scoffed... He tweeted: Keep the bar high:No student rises to low expectations.
But the king realized that without severe consequences, his subjects would not take the contest seriously since it did require a herculean amount of effort....
So the king decreed that those coaches of children who failed, would be publicly executed. He decreed children who did not make it would be thrown in a wood chipper and ground up for dog and cat food. The king sadly knew some children would not make it, but also realized that if he didn't hold a very real punishment over all children's heads, he would never gain his medal he so wanted... It was just what had to be done...
Many said his actions would eliminate his white subjects since everybody knew: white people can't jump. He scoffed... Blaming race for poor performance was a cop-out he said.
A corporate business suddenly mushroomed around getting children ready for the trials... In return for "a lot of money", the king's court now pretending to be trainers, would coach the children into excellence... However it quickly became apparent that all those coaches for-hire, were only teaching those children who could meet those challenges naturally. Those who couldn't, were shunted to the scum of the coaching profession since they would all be executed and ground up anyway.
As the trials approached the people were beside themselves over what to do... Many knew their children would die... It was impossible to expect them to jump long at 19.4 feet while at age 11....
They came up with a plan...
On the day of the trials... no children showed up... They were nowhere to be found... Not in the homes... not in the churches... not in the schools... They had all mysteriously disappeared...
The trials had to be canceled. The king was furious... But there was nothing he could do.... He didn't know how to react. If he randomly killed children he couldn't know whether he was killing a grunt, or one of his future star athletes. If he randomly killed coaches, he had no way to know if they were they the great ones! He did know this: he knew that if he randomly killed members of his population, even his security guards would turn against him.... So he hemmed, and hawed, and swore that next year, there was indeed going to be a contest....
But there was one problem.... No one wanted to do all that work knowing full well that they just didn't have to show on the next year's trial date and again there would be nothing the king could do... Really, who wanted to spend 8 hours a day jumping as far as they possibly could, or running as fast as they possibly could, or throwing a shot putt as far as they could and doing absolutely nothing else?
For you see, over that entire year... no reading got done... no mathematics got done... no science got done... no extra-curricular activities got done.... All time was focused on 3 things, over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and to be quite frank, everyone was tired of it...
They talked among themselves.
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- Why are we doing this to ourselves just so the king can get a medal?
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- What possible use can all these tasks be put to, after the medals are awarded?
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- Aren't there better things to do with our time as in before all this began?
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- Isn't it time we run things and get the king completely out of our children's lives?
And one night, after 4, they all quietly gathered and met in front of the king's palace.... They stormed the gates, the king's security ran and hid, and they quickly found the king playing with himself in the bathroom and dragged him to the highest wall of the castle..... There they brought to him a shot putt ball... and gave it to the king with this request.... "Sir, here is a shot putt ball; since you set the minimum standard at 22.9 meters... Throw this to that level or we throw you over the wall. The king refused, and the crowd gathered to toss him... Then the king changed his mind... "Really, how hard could it be to throw a shot putt only 22.9 meters? He was a grown man... It shouldn't be that hard at all, especially since he was on a tall wall... He tossed..... it went 5.9 meters.....
The crowd picked him up and threw him off the wall. He landed in the stone street, breaking 5 ribs, both arms, one leg, and sustaining a massive blow upon his head, cracking his skull which spilled out his gray matter, killing him instantly... The crowd roared its approval... They were so overjoyed and happy that every parent then took their turn and tossed their heavy shot putt balls down from the high wall onto the carcass lying in a pool of blood below, causing great red splashes to fountain up each time a lucky hit occurred. The balls piled up and were left there as a monument to remind this to all people who would in the future, gaze upon it: .. Folly in the minds of the elite... is still folly.
Some things make no sense no matter who thinks they do........