Great people are strange

“Great people are very strange,” Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s protagonist Little Prince comes to that conclusion after his encounter with a king of a tiny asteroid. The king was delighted to see Little Prince because he didn’t have anyone to rule over in his kingdom. Without subjects to rule over, no one can feel like a king. To be a king means to boss over others.

Little Prince is bored by the king’s desire for a subject. He yawns. Yawning in front of a king is contrary to etiquette, the king points out. Little Prince explains that he is tired after his long trip and loss of sleep. “Then,” says the king, “I command you to yawn.”

Everything must go according to the king’s commands. When Little Prince says that he cannot yawn as per orders, the king says, “Then I … I order you to yawn sometimes and…” Little Prince can yawn whenever he likes. But he should pretend that all his yawns are in tune with the king’s orders.

“May I sit?” Little Prince asks.

“I order you to sit down,” King answers.

Little Prince has some doubts like what the king is actually ruling over on a tiny planet like this.

“I order you to question me,” King says before answering Prince’s question. He reigns over everything, he says. His own planet, other planets and stars.

“And the stars obey you?” Prince asks.

“Of course. They obey at once. I do not tolerate indiscipline.”

Prince longs to see a sunset, he says. King can order the sun to set. After all, he rules over the sun too.

That’s an unjust demand, says the king. “We must demand of each one what each one can give. Authority should rest on reason. If I command the people to go and throw themselves into the sea, there will be a rebellion.” Little Prince will have his sunset. But he should wait, wait until its time.

Prince wants to leave. This King is a big bore. [Which king is not?]

King doesn’t want to lose the only subject he has managed to get. Don’t leave, he says. I’ll make you a minister. King offers to make Prince his minister of justice. “You can judge that old rat,” he says. “You will condemn him to death from time to time. So his life will depend on your righteousness. But you will pardon it every time to save it. There is only one.”

When Prince insists on leaving this wretched place, King lets him go but appoints him his ambassador.

As we Indians commemorate the Kargil victory today, I was reminded of this King. Of course, I am patriotic enough to celebrate national victories over marauding enemies. What amuses me is the marauding itself. Whenever a puny mind wishes to assert his power over others, he attacks. That is what wars are in essence. The yawn of a boring ego.

All these great people ruling over countries are not very unlike the king in the story above. Their mammoth egos could be hilarious entertainments for ordinary mortals like us had they not been perverted marauders. Anyway, patriotism requires proofs and occasional marauds offer proofs or at least opportunities for creating proofs.