The cradle of wisdom

I love the feeling of success. When you aim for something, and you achieve it.
It feels wonderful to get it done, it feels wonderful to be recognized and acknowledge by people you look up to.
But why is it, that as soon as you get home, you start to cherry pick apart what you did, and find flaws no matter how well you did? I seem to have a habit of expecting myself to be perfect, especially if I expect myself to be good at something. I've even tried to get incredibly upset when something good happened to me, because I myself didn't believe I was good at it, and being told I was good broke my own image of myself.

In any case, I'll try to deal with these emotions since I just got over a huge hurdle in my life. Short update, I know, but whatever!

Today I'd like to talk about the concept of being strong, from a man and a woman's perspective.

I see the term used indiscriminately for both genders, but few realise that a strong woman and a strong man are vastly different to men and women. For example, as a man, and obviously only representing myself, strength for a man means to be of strong body and spirit. It doesn't mean to be defiant, but it does mean being able to be a rock in tough times, compassionate and wise in judgement. A strong man isn't necessarily a loner, he looks after others. His "tribe", his family or his friends. To be strong to men, is to be able to be a well spring of safety and power. Sure, you can be strong of body but be cruel of spirit, but then you have a man who might as easily destroy that which he stands for, as well as protect it. Strong of spirit but not of body leads to a man who has his heart in the right place, but not the power to match his ideals.

I realise I may be thinking in a very idealistic way, but I've always held that the truest test of strength is how well you can protect others, as well as protect yourself.

And then you have the women's way of strength. As a man, I can only really guess as to what a strong woman is to a woman, but there are some consistencies I've found to repeat. For example, a strong woman is typically strong in spirit, but not necessarily strong in body (from a man's perspective). She is often referred to as being able to take care of herself, having "strong" opinions (yes, I realise that I definite the thing I'm trying to define with itself haha) and generally be more outspoken. Sometimes, interestingly enough, women are called strong because they obstinately believe something about themselves to be true, to the point of absurdity. For example, I am currently overweight and therefore would call myself fat. I call myself this, because my BMI is above the normal value for my height to body weight ratio. A woman who might refuse to call herself overweight, and instead call herself curvy, might be considered strong because she "doesn't care what others think about her", and has turned her problem into something positive. This is all well and good, of course, but men (myself) value strength as being precise, true and on-the-nose. A strong man would realise he had a problem, and take steps to remedy the situation. And a strong woman, again just some cases I've seen, would instead refuse to change and instead glorify her current situation rather than do anything about it. 

So why are our definitions of strength so different from each other? Well, as the book "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" implies, I believe it's because we are born with, and grow into, certain values. But well that is a whole other book about child psychology and societal patterns that I probably don't know anything about, so I won't attempt to go further with it without a careful think.

Sometimes you do see a woman who fits men's (again, just me) definition of strength. A woman who trains her body, looks out for others and is wise and on-the-nose about things. And sometimes you see men with a woman's definition of strength, who carry themselves with enormous weight and influence, such as drags, for better or worse.

I'd just like to repeat myself again, that these are all my personal observations, and I don't actually have a particular favourite. I do believe that the female version of strength focusses too heavily on the strength of the spirit. The reason for this is because, as I said earlier, if a man has strength without compassion, he can be a cruel tyrant to all those around him, and people will fear him instead of look up to him. So if you just focus on one thing, you will fall into a pit trap of imbalance.

Anyway, I might be completely wrong and just talk shite out of my ass! I'd love to hear (summarised as short as possible, so we can avoid huge comment chains) what you think about what I've described. I'd also love to hear from women how they perceive a strong woman, and also a strong man! Since I can't exactly get that perspective naturally, it would be invaluable for me if I turn out to be wrong.

In any case, thanks for reading and hope you have a great day.

In this blog I'd like to talk about something I see people mentioning sometimes. It's usually words like "good dom", "fake dom" or "bad dom".
In my case, I am naturally curious as to what these people actually mean when they say these things. Also just to clarify, they're also thrown around about subs, so just switch "dom" out with "sub" and you'll get the idea. In any case, the only way that I have ever been able to get some sense of understanding about anything, is by taking it case by case, so that's what I'm going to do.

First of all, if we define something "fake" as "not genuine", then we can try to apply it to a dom. Doms can come in all shapes and sizes, with all manners of different beliefs, kinks or opinions. I therefore won't be going into detail about what the general dom is like, since that is purely subjective and thus I can't know it if I don't experience it. But if we define a dominant as someone who "likes to dominate", the only reason that this dominant would be a fake, is if he doesn't really like to dominate at all. This might be the case when you try to make, let's say a boyfriend, dominate you sexually if he has no interest in doing so. He might act out the role, and do the things you like, but he will be imitating what he thinks it's like to be a dominant.

Secondly, if we try to define good or bad, we'll be going down a rabbit hole of different takes on what it means to be good or bad. For example, Socrates once argued that the skillful thief, who fully understands what he's doing and does it well, is a better person than an accidental thief, who doesn't understand what he's doing or did it on accident. Why did Socrates come to this conclusion? He argued that, by being good at something, you have to put in effort and be diligent, both traits he considered "good". Even though the "good" thief was clearly on the wrong path, he was a better person than the thief who didn't know what to do. An interesting thought process, and something that I quite liked.

It would be just as easy to argue, that the better thief would also be the worse of a person, than the accidental thief, because he had practiced and gotten good at a malicious craft. So to me, it's very hard to define what a good or bad dom is, except through what you personally consider good or bad. But if it's only what you consider good or bad, and not really about the person, then it's more of a "bad match" case and not really anything to do with the dom.

For example, if a bratty, little girl submissive got together with a very strict master dominant, they would probably not be a good fit. Both of them would feel unfulfilled and could very well be blaming the other person. What is really happening is that your expectations, and your onions, are getting in the way. You also see this whenever you meet someone new as a dom. The training they have received could be vastly different from the training you consider to be vital. You might even think that they have been taught something that is wrong. But the truth of the matter is, that this is simply just how the dominant is, what he cherished and what he liked. You can't call that a bad or good dom. It's just a dom. But to you, it's easy to classify based on what you think. And make no mistake, it's perfectly fine to hold an opinion and decide whether they're good or bad based on what you think or feel, but they are neither good nor bad to anyone else, unless others share your point of view.

So to top it all off, you can't call someone a "fake" unless they're actually imitating enjoying dominating, and you can't truly go around calling someone a good or bad dom, since it's purely subjective and your "take" on what is right or wrong. Though it would obviously be possible for a community as a whole to develop a general consensus of what is right or wrong, and THEN you could say that "this dom is a bad/good dom" based on what the community values. Again, all of this could be applied to submissives as well.

You might also stumble upon the term "natural dom/sub". This is typically referring to a person who doesn't really know they're a dom/sub, but is so naturally talented at it, and enjoying it, that they have great potential if they were to be more knowledgeable about bdsm in general.

In any case, these were just a few thoughts I had. Hope you enjoyed, and if you want to discuss it further feel free!

So this blog isn't going to be about anything special. It isn't going to cover anything I find philosophically interesting, or talk about any book.
I just want this blog entry to be a bit about me, and what I have been up to.

In Denmark, students gets paid to study. It isn't a huge sum, and you do have to either work a bit or take a loan to make it viable in the long term, but it can work out. The reason why I tell you this, is because I am an "old" student. I am fully aware that being 29, and soon to be 30, isn't really old if you asked, let's say, an 80 year old, but in our education system I am considered old. I only have one option to complete the education I need, in order to unlock the paths for higher education, and that is taking single subjects until I have what is required to go further.

The reason why I haven't gotten the education I need in order to go further, and get a higher education, started a while ago. When I was 20, I was hit by mental illness. It had been looming from my early childhood, but It quite literally broke me at 20. Back then I was still considered young by our education system, and so I was going about my education like any other regular student. I had picked a school that suited my interests, and I had finished 2 and a half years of a 3 year long education when it happened. I had to quit school, and I had no idea what was wrong with me.

What followed was a mix of trying to get back into, and finishing, my education and trying out new stuff. I got back into the same education tree in a different school and class, and I could even jump back into the start of year 3. I ended up dropping out after 3 months, the exact same thing happening to me again. I have several failed attempts like that. In the beginning I refused help, believing I could either get out of it myself, or that I was just tired and needed a break. When I finally did accept help, I was still being stubborn and refused to try most medication. Later when I did accept mediation, I got no positive benefits from them whatsoever, and ended up dropping them one by one. At the present day, I simply have some pills that make my brain feel like mush, and that helps me fall asleep.

The reason why I've just laid out my mental situation for you, is because I went out drinking with a friend yesterday.

My friend isn't a stranger to mental illness, but he managed to not only finish his education, he went for a higher education too, finished that and now has a well paying job. He is the same age as me. Without even mentioning an inferiority complex, I can safely say that I felt almost like a ghost from his past. A whisper that somehow got stuck and took 10 years to reach his ears. I enjoyed his company, and I hope he enjoyed mine, but I kept wondering how my life would have turned out if I had the "strength" to overcome my illness on my own. It's hard to control simple thoughts like that, even though I've learned how silly it is to try and fight mental illness on your own, it still pops up in my head to torment me.

We ended up talking about a wide variety of subjects, ranging from mathematics and chemistry, to a more philosophical approach to death and life. It was then I found out that his mother had died. But his mother hadn't died in a natural way. She wasn't taken while battling a disease like cancer or anything like that either. She had committed suicide.

The thought isn't foreign to me, and I admit not even a single day pass by where I don't think about ending it all. It has grown to the point where, when I look at people, I wonder why they themselves haven't committed suicide yet. A very grim and troubling outlook on life, I know. To me, it helps to know that I want to live. And I try to remind myself that I want to live whenever I have these thoughts. But the thoughts are constant and like flies. You can easily bat them away with a flick of the wrist in the form of concentrated focus, but all that does for you is that they circle around you a bit before they land again. Sooner or later, you get too tired to try and bat them away, and the flies just stay on you.

When I thought about how his mother must've gone through the same as I have, how she must've felt the pain of living, and the feeling of something being wrong with you, I felt incredibly sorry for my friend.

I got him to open up about it, and he said that he was surprised she would do such a selfish thing. He said that he thought she had grown lonely because her children grew up and moved out. How they stopped writing, calling or communicating. That they weren't around, and that she couldn't handle it. This was a few months before corona broke out, and my friend had a sad laugh about how, if she had still been alive when it broke out, his entire family would have "gotten closer" in order to make sure everyone was alright. He said that, even though it might've seemed like she couldn't do anything or be happy, there was something that could've changed all that right around the corner.

But she killed herself, and that meant she cut herself off from everything. Even the very solution, right around the corner, that she couldn't see.

My friend said that what she did was incredibly selfish to her children. He said she never reached out, and that she was selfish for never trying, since he would've helped if she had asked. He said parents aren't supposed to watch their children die, but that the children hate seeing their parents die just as much. He seemed to have taken a hard stance between accepting she committed suicide, and not accepting that there's ever a good reason to commit suicide. My friend also revealed how he has been taking sick leave for a while, in order to figure out his life, and maybe take a break. I personally hope that this isn't the signs of a breakdown, like the one I had at 20, and that he really will be able to get better. On the bright side, he seems to engage with people, so that's a good thing.

So, if you're ever struggling with mental illnesses and thoughts of suicide, remember that your loved ones want to help and will be incredibly sad if you killed yourself without reaching out to them. Remember that even though everything can feel like it won't ever change, something might happen that'll completely change everything for you, and make life worth living.

Thanks for reading so far. Hope it wasn't too long or too dark.

Dinner went on, until it did not, and then servants cleaned the table and the participants prepared to leave. As his father went around the table on his way out, he laid a hand on the young master’s shoulder.

“I presume you’ve had time to think about my question. Come with me to my study” he said.

Almost dragging his feet, the young master followed, still discouraged that he had not been able to find a proper answer. And being alone with his father in his study, the young master suddenly began to feel the overwhelming pressure of the situation.

His father, taking a seat in his chair at his desk, and motioning for the young master to take the seat in front of him, looked sympathetically at his son.

And then he broke the silence. “I am sure you have more questions than answers, I can see that on your face, son. Unbeknownst to you, I had informed all the staff today of the big responsibility on your shoulders. The young maid who followed you, and the sergeant’s recruit, have both told me of where you went.”

He continued “And I also know that you are fond of night trips, so I made sure to watch your window and follow you personally to see where you went”.

With a smile, he went on “I also think that you did the same as me when I was young and compared yourself to our subjects. But I will help you, as my father helped me, and give you a hint.”

The young master’s father now stood up, and raised his arms with an open hand, as to beckon his son to inspect his person.

Then he said, “I am neither agile, faithful, strong, or as wise as some of my subjects, yet still, I am the master”.

The young master, first confused, with thoughts racing in his mind as to what his father meant, suddenly realized what his father wanted him to see. The young master stood up to exclaim his revelation.

He began “I am also neither agile, faithful, strong or as wise as some of our subjects, but I was born lucky, and I have had good teachers and caring company since I was born.”

And then he finally answered “It was luck that I was born into this family, it was luck that I am to be the master. But it is not luck that I now understand what it truly means to be the master. To be the master is not to be the strongest, smartest, or wisest. To be all of that without equal, would be to become a god. No, to become the master is to make use of the strengths of your subjects. If I am not the most agile, then I will make the maid from the kitchen my feet. If I am not the most faithful, then I will make our sergeant my armor. If I am not the strongest, I will make the strong man from the field my arms. And if I am not the wisest, then I will make the old man my head. They are all my strengths that I do not have myself, and they will, together, make up for all I lack. To be master is to know how to manage your people, to make them the best versions of themselves they can be and make them mighty, so that through their might, they can become my might as well”.

And with that answer, the young master’s father was pleased, and he hugged his son with heartfelt celebration.

Something that I have found to be against common sense is how some subs seem to crave being punished.

I'd like to establish my argument by pointing out, that if you look forward to something, it's a reward. If you're looking forward to being punished, it's not a punishment, it's a reward. I have no idea why people don't just do it for fun, but I also see why subs really like the "I've been a bad boy/girl" aspect of being "punished". But in my world, being punished is always uncomfortable.

Being punished is a deterrent for future insubordination and disobedience. It is meant to be such a displeasing thing, that when you think of it, or indeed the threat of it looming over your head, you will actively seek to avoid certain behaviors based on the uncomfortable experience you will receive. This also means every single punishment has to be subjective. Universally, pain is a common denominator when it comes to punishments, simply because a lot of people find pain to be really undesirable. But if you deal with a masochist, which we find a lot of here, pain is attractive.

How then, do you punish with pain, when the sub finds the pain pleasurable? Simply put, you don't. You need to find something else that the sub would find really uncomfortable. For example, something I really like doing, is just give the sub an extremely cold shower until they are visibly shivering and uncontrollably shaking. Typically this is a very uncomfortable experience being "hosed down" and not at all desirable, and I have yet to find someone who goes "Oh yes, give me that cold shower, daddy" to me.

In any case, if you practice punishments that you two both enjoy, then I don't see why you insist on calling it "punishments". Just own up to the fact you both like it, and consider it play. But again, as I've said, there's probably a lot of "pretending" that makes it more exciting.

I'm also not a big fan at all of punishments in general, because I believe the "carrot" is a lot better incentive to behaving in a desirable way. A punishment to me, is essentially an enforcement of your rules with physical might. If you are not there, there is no guarantee that the sub is going to behave in the way you expect, because the threat of the punishment is no longer present. This leads me to always count on punishments as a sort of last resort. To always punish, not because I want to, because the sadist in me do really love hurting people, but because I have to. The carrot is useless without the stick, just as the stick is useless without the carrot. It helps to set a clear boundary of "to here and no further", and THEN you can begin reinforcing good behavior with rewards.

In any case, what do you guys think?

The golden sun was slowly starting its decline into a sunset, and as such the workers in the fields must have begun bringing in today’s harvest before calling it a night. And surely enough, when he got to the fields, he saw how much had been harvested and how thick and heavy the sheafs were. He saw the men finishing up the work with the scythes and the women and children following behind, tying the swath up with bands made from wheat. To carry the sheaves back home, to the housing for the slaves, were a horse drawn cart, and an unusually large man would pick up the sheafs one by one and load them onto the cart.

The young master was fascinated with the enormous strength of the man by the cart, how he picked up so much wheat with ease. The young master knew this man had been working from morning and realized his workload must have tiring out the big brute, although it hardly seemed so. The man moved without any sign of exhaustion, and easily carried what two men would struggle with.

Standing in the middle of a field with a guard and a maid, the young master stuck out like a sore thumb, and some of the slaves decided to wave and greet him. The young master knew that his father had always kept a friendly relationship with his slaves, treating them well without punishing harshly like other estates did. So even though slaves were not normally meant to interact with the dynasty in charge of the estates, his father had created a place where it was perfectly normal.

Even the big brute turned away from his work to wave at the young master, and not wanting to keep them from their work and disturb them any longer, the young master waved back and started to depart for the estate.

Being escorted safely to the front door, the guard saluted and returned to the barracks. The young maid, quite satisfied that the young master was doing okay, excused herself, and got back to her usual work.

Returning to his room, the young master began to ponder what he had learnt and seen. He thought to himself that there was still time to learn a bit more before he could come to any sort of conclusion about his endeavor today.

From his window, the young master could spot the housing complex for the slaves, and he could see how the men, women and children were returning with the last of the wheat in their carts for threshing and winnowing in the morning. The young master decided to have one last look at his future subjects and decided to climb out the window to avoid being escorted again, having grown a bit weary of being followed around.

Luckily, this was not the first time the young master had snuck out at night, being fond of taking a stroll in the garden in the pale moonlight, and so he had hidden away a makeshift rope to climb out of his window. Not long after he arrived at the slave housing he hid in a bush.

The young master spied on the slaves and saw a great number of people surrounding what looked to be a campfire. It was quiet except for an older man, who was telling a story to the rest.

The young master listened in, and heard story after story of people overcoming hardships, learning to be kind and gentle as well as smart and cunning. The old man made sure to impart his life lessons in the stories he told, and he used the stories to captivate his audience and make his point have impact. He taught what he felt was right for the younger generations to know, and he made sure that the community enjoyed his stories by making them fun to listen to as well as educational.

The young master, not realizing how much time had passed, saw that the sun had almost set. He hurried back to the estate, climbed his makeshift rope up to his window, and got in just as the door was opened by his father.

“I came to personally get you. It’s time for dinner, and after that you will meet me in my study” and with those words his father closed the door and left the young master to dress appropriately and prepare for dinner.

As he left his room, he was escorted by the same young maid who had accompanied him earlier, and was led ceremoniously to the dining hall, where his family had been waiting. His father, now with all his dynasty present, began the dinner, and soon servants flooded in with food on beautiful trays and served it with the greatest of grace.

But the young master’s mind was disturbed. He had not had time to think about what he had seen throughout his day, and he was lost in thoughts throughout the whole dinner, hardly noticing his surroundings.

He thought to himself, “I don’t know why I should be the master. I do not possess the elegance and agility of the maid from the kitchen, I have not yet been tested on a battlefield or shown such loyalty as the sergeant, I don’t have the endurance and raw strength that the mighty man from the fields had and I have still not lived long enough to have seen as much or be as wise as the old man from the slave houses”.

He continued “I do not possess any of these qualities, yet I have to answer my father in his study within the hour”.

As the young master donned the proper attire, he walked through the halls of his father’s manor. The servants and maids he met along the way bowed their heads in a polite and quick, but graceful, way as they met the young master on his way.

Not usually patrolling the manor in this way, the young master inadvertently heard the servants discussing what today’s lunch would be, and the young master decided to visit the kitchen as the first place to learn more about his father’s servants.

A bit out of the way, but connected to the main dining hall, the kitchen was abuzz with activity. The young master managed to peek his head through a doorway leading to the kitchen, without causing a commotion or drawing the attention of anyone other than the people going in and out of the doorway he occupied.

In the kitchen the older servants barked orders at the younger, and a system was maintained so that each step of the process of cooking was as fast and efficient as possible. Though the young master had originally thought to himself that the older servants must be who he should observe to understand what it means to be the master, he found himself mesmerized by a much younger servant.

The young master did not have to stare long, nor did he mean to, to view the splendid performance before his eyes. The servant moved with such graceful and light steps that it almost seemed as if she danced. Whenever an order was barked, she responded immediately and move in and out of the chaos while dodging collisions elegantly going to and fro. It seemed to the young master, that hers was the job of moving the items prepared by the other servants to the places they needed to be, and no matter how many plates she had to carry, she never lost her balance or dropped anything.

It was a beautiful unintended performance for anyone with the time to witness it. Working for so long in the kitchen seemed to have impacted great agility on this servant, and as the young master retreated into the main dining hall of the manor, he thought for a moment about what he could learn from seeing such a sight.

His thoughts were disturbed almost as soon as they started, by the shouts and yelling of the drill sergeant a couple of stone throws from the manor. His voice had a particular strength to it, and when drills were ongoing, his voice was easily heard throughout the estate.

The young master decided that the barracks should be the next place he visited, after all, this was where the soldiers trained to defend his father’s estate. Surely, he would be able to learn something about being the master from them.

As the young master was preparing to depart for the barracks, the young maid, who had previously been worried about him, saw that he was preparing to leave, and insisted that she joined him, thinking she might be able to ease his worries.

Though a bit annoyed he were being babysat, he allowed the maid to accompany him, because he did appreciate her concern for him.

The two made their way to the barracks, and all the while the loud voice of the sergeant grew ever more in strength. And soon you could also hear the grunts of the soldiers exercising amidst the loud, commanding voice of the sergeant.

Standing near the gate to the barracks, the young master peeked into the courtyard, just as he had peeked into the kitchen while trying to avoid attention.

While the sergeant was moving around, the young master could see how proudly he displayed the medals he had won in wars. The young master did not know all the medals but knew enough to recognize some, and while he knew the sergeant used to be a dignified soldier, it was not very often the young master would see him doing drills.

As the sergeant was instructing the soldiers, he shouted words of loyalty. He reminded the soldiers why they were training, to protect the young master, his father, and the entire estate from those who would wish them harm. He bellowed out the creed of the dynasty, went to lengths to explain why the young master’s family had to be protected and why each of the soldiers should be proud to serve such a noble house.

To the young master, the sergeant seemed like a great pillar of strength that the other soldiers looked up to. His words carried a certain weight to them, and there was no doubt that this man was the reason for his family’s loyal soldiers. He did not preach either, but instead embodied the very same values that he was trying to instill in the other soldiers. He had already done his part, and for some reason, out of a love for the young master’s father, were also trying to prepare future soldiers to do the same.

The young maid that accompanied the young master got curious after seeing the young master peek at the gate to the barracks. She asked him, if he was perhaps trying to learn more about what it means to be a master, and to that the young master nodded.

“Then, I have a suggestion. Why not go into the fields and see the men and women working? Surely watching the slaves do their labor will give you some idea how to govern?”

Before the young master could reply, the sharp voice of the sergeant could be heard right next to them.

“What’s this? The young master wants to inspect the slaves at work?” Said the sergeant.

The young master, quite startled, had not heard the sergeant approach. For such a big man, he was deceptively silent when he wanted to be. He must have spotted the young master peeking and overheard the conversation between him and his maid.

“If so, then take one of my recruits with you, young master. It will do him good to learn how to protect, and who knows what might happen if you visit the slaves” Continued the sergeant.

And with that, the conversation was over. The young master had hardly gotten a word in and already was a younger recruit standing tall right in front of him. He saluted and awaited the masters next choice of destination.

The young master, feeling even more crowded than before, let out a sigh and accepted his fate. Now walking towards the vast fields of his father’s estate, along with his maid and soldier, he realized how much time had passed.

Today, I'd like to talk a bit about the king from "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In case you're curious, the king is featured in chapter 10.

Without going too much into detail, as it is quite a curious read if you're interested, our main character is a space exploring child. Through his adventures, he meets various characters. Some are described at length and others barely get an introduction.

The subject of today's blog will be a king the prince visits.

The king lives on an tiny asteroid, and he takes up most of it's space. This is glossed over, but to me it's an important detail which I'll give my take on later. Through the brief introduction, the king is revealed to be an absolute monarch. He rules over everything, and tolerates no disobedience. However, he is also a good man, and thus always makes his orders reasonable. An explanation as to why he does this, he says, among other things, that "If I ordered a general to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not obey me, that would not be the fault of the general. It would be my fault".

In order to give orders, then, he always asks what is reasonable from his subjects, and the way he does this is to wait until "conditions are favorable".

He also says "I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable". In the very first conversation with the prince, the king immediately calls him a subject, because to the king, everyone is a subject. When asked what he is a king of, he says "Everything".

The prince can't help but yawn, as he was tired from traveling, and the king forbids him to do so. When the prince says he can't help it, the king changes his mind and orders him to yawn. When the prince says he can't yawn on command, the king decides to order him to "sometimes yawn and sometimes not".

Now the prince got a bit homesick, as he is still a child and far from home. On his, very tiny, home planet, he was able to see the sunset several times a day, simply by moving his chair. When he asks the king for a sunset, since he is king of everything, and everything obeys his commands, as he requires total obedience, the king agrees. But as he never asks for anything unreasonable, he tells the prince they must wait until the conditions are favorable, and when asked when that is, he counts the time for when the sun sets.

"Hum! Hum! That will be about- about- that will be this evening about twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how well I am obeyed".

The prince growing bored of waiting decides to leave the king and his asteroid. The king, afraid of losing his only subject, starts trying to entice the prince. "Do not go. I will make you a Minister!". The prince and king have a back and forth where the king tries harder and harder to make him stay.

When the prince is finally ready to depart, he lets the king know he will be going on his way. The king simply answers "No", and the prince then says: "If your majesty wishes to be promptly obeyed, he should be able to give me a reasonable order. he should be able, for example, to order me to be gone by the end of one minute. It seems to me that conditions are favorable..."

The king, with his own logic used against him, has no answer. And the prince sighs, leaves the asteroid, and hears the king yelling how he'll make him his ambassador.

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Now the whole encounter is meant to display a folly. The king is essentially the king of nothing. He "orders" you to do things that you were already going to do, and never gives an unreasonable order. The fact is, things would continue as they were, precisely as they were, with or without the king.

As I said earlier, he lives by himself and takes up most of the space of his asteroid. He has no subjects to speak of, and therefore is overjoyed when the prince shows up. He is all by himself, floating through empty space, believing himself to be the sole ruling monarch of the entire cosmos.

If we had to analyze this, and look at where he goes wrong, then let's start with his "reasonable" orders. The king is indeed correct when he says that he can't order someone to do something that they can't, but he is mistaken about the difference of ordering someone to do something impossible and something nigh impossible. As such, the king's logic is flawed when he makes his perfectly reasonable orders, because they aren't orders at all, if he just tells people to act like they want to act. 

"reasonable" to him means he has justification ordering people around. He tolerates no disobedience, of course, and the only way he can achieve this, is by telling people to do exactly as they want to. When faced with an unfavorable choice, like when the prince wants to leave, he has no answer. He obviously doesn't want the prince to leave, and tells him "No". He literally comes face to face with the fact, that although he is the king of everything, he doesn't have the power to be the king.

He can force no-one to do anything, and thus holds no power. His orders are only backed up with words or empty promises. There are no guards and no army. This king would be the perfect example of the saying "go with the flow", as he does everything when it is most natural to do so.

If we assume the king had absolute power along with his grand claims of being the king of everything, it still wouldn't change anything, because he would still follow his rule of "reasonable" orders. He would never force anyone to do something they didn't want to do, even with omnipotence. Which means that there are at least two major issues with the king as a monarch. He cannot enforce his orders, and he will never make an actual order.

Now, the reason this is on here, is because, if you look at the king as a dominant we can start to presume a few things.

In order to have "pull" or "weight", you need to dominate from a position of power. Physical or mental, there needs to be some sort of whip to make the stubborn mule move, so to speak. The dominant's will must be enforced with power, if he is at all going to be obeyed.

Secondly, he has to operate out from an "unreasonable" perspective. His orders need not be fair, or considerate, of his sub. As long as it is not impossible, he should be able to order a sub to do it. Again, the reason for this is, that if he only ordered what the sub wanted to do, it wouldn't be HIS will he imposed on another, it would be the sub's own will, and that is not domination.

Now remember, we haven't talked about the nature of what is ordered. It could be good, it could be bad. We only know it has to deviate from the example of the king.

Anyways, that is my little philosophy for today. Hope you enjoyed.

... Or "How Danes keep themselves down".
This is a satirical work of a fictional town, Jante, that got really popular. Apparently it's supposed to make fun of how small towns and communities in Denmark behaved, or expected outsiders to behave. While Danes don't really obey the laws, as they are pretty extreme, there is still a hint of truth to them, and I thought I'd share some Danish philosophy with you all! Though some things may be lost in translation haha.

The ten rules state:

1. You're not to think you are anything special.
2. You're not to think you are as good as we are.
3. You're not to think you are smarter than we are.
4. You're not to imagine yourself better than we are.
5. You're not to think you know more than we do.
6. You're not to think you are more important than we are.
7. You're not to think you are good at anything.
8. You're not to laugh at us.
9. You're not to think anyone cares about you.
10. You're not to think you can teach us anything.

I'll just say this again, these laws are pretty extreme and are meant to be a mockery. But in Danish society, standing out, bragging or being too full of yourself is frowned upon. Danes are pretty straight forward and don't muck about. They mean exactly what they say, for example if you're to meet a Dane at 10 o'clock it MEANS 10 o'clock. If you ask them how they are, they WILL tell you (explicitly) if they're having a bad time. They also talk to everyone as equals, and yes that includes teachers, work seniors, police officers or elders. You can take it or leave it, but it does feel very, very different from American society, and that is worth a think or two!