Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

"And so, my boy, King Appolis, who was extremely conscientious himselfabout the obligations he had assumed to maintain the greatness of thecommunity entrusted to him, did not spare either his own labor or wealth,while demanding the same from all his subjects."And since the mentioned consequence of the properties of the organkundabuffer had by then, as I have just said, been thoroughly crystallized incertain of his subjects, he had to employ every possible kind of 'intimidation'and 'threat' to extract from everyone all that was needed to maintain thegreatness of the community."His methods were so varied, and at the same time so reasonable, that eventhose of his subjects in whom these consequences had already beencrystallized could not help respecting him, although they nicknamed him, ofcourse behind his back, the 'Arch-Cunning.'"Well, my boy, the methods used by King Appolis to extract from hissubjects what was necessary for maintaining the greatness of his communityseemed to our young countryman, for some reason or other, unjust, and hegrew restive and indignant whenever he heard of some new device of theking's for getting what was required."And so one day, while talking with King Appolis, our naive youngcountryman could no longer contain his indignation and told the king to hisface what he thought of his 'unconscionable' conduct toward his subjects."The king did not fly into a temper, as usually happens on the planet Earthwhen somebody pokes his nose into what is none of his business, nor did hehave him thrown out by the scruff of his neck Instead he even discussed thewhole question with him and explained the reasons for his severity."They talked for a long time, and the outcome of their