Since this is the weekend, here is another very special article: a fairy tale about politics and business! The story was related to me by an expert in the illumination market. I re-wrote it in the form of a fairy tale. My source, however, thinks it is not a fairy tale at all. He insists it actually happened like this. Let’s go!
Once upon a time, there was a queen. She reigned over a powerful kingdom in a rich continent. Just like her subjects, she always wanted to be the European and World Champion. Chances were quite good, because during her reign, the only people who succeeded in the only issue any of her subjects were interested in were the women (code word: princesses Prinz ).
Our queen always distributed her people’s money quite lavishly. Consequently, she was well-liked by the other kings on the continent and the powerful of this world and by the great business nobility lobbyists. The kings of the continent met on a regular basis for royal dinners. The queen was permitted to sit at the table and once in a while even to raise her voice a little bit. She was always very enthusiastic.
The other kings, too, always treated her well. Occasionally, she even got a chaste kiss on the cheek by the charming kings of the south. Whenever a group picture was taken, she was allowed to stand in the middle of the front row.
Her reputation grew more and more, even beyond the borders of her kingdom. The only problem was that she was never really influential when it came to the important things discussed by the kings around the dinner table. That annoyed her, so she decided something had to be done about it.
She remembered that she had always wanted to save the planet. Even early on, when she had still been a princess under the old king, that had been what she wanted. In those days, she had been full of sparkling energy. Only the “do-as-I-say” king had stopped her. But now she was queen herself, now the time had finally come.
The other kings, too, thought it a good idea to finally save the planet. Since, however, they did not know either how to go about it, they permitted the queen to do so. She asked the best counsellors of her country for advice. They had to solve a difficult problem: how to save a lot of energy effortlessly without having to make any sacrifices?
The counsellors were used to having to solve unsolvable problems. After all, it was their daily routine. They made plans and employed lots of prophets and prophesiers. Countless slides and thick volumes of studies were written. Then the counsellors went to visit all the powerful chieftains of the country.
First and foremost, they went to see the car prince in Swabia and asked him if, maybe, he could help by building more economical cars. He reminded them of all the many subjects of the queen whose living depended on building huge coaches and sent them back home.
Not prepared to give up hope, they went to see the next prince. This was the energy prince. All he wanted, however, was subsidies and extra permissions. So the counsellors had to leave empty-handed.
The counsellors went from one powerful prince to the next – and the results were always more or less the same: they were not a success.
When they were already going to give up hope, they discovered a not quite so powerful but still pretty prince, the illumination prince. And their “think tank” developed a new, ingenious idea. If you banned the hideous old lamps – they were not contributing towards making a profit, anyway – you would be able to sell many more of the complex, expensive magic lamps. That would make you even richer. Now this was to the taste of the prince, so he consented.
With smiles on their faces, the counsellors returned to their queen to tell her about the huge success they had been. Now all that was left was for all the kings of the entire continent to ban the conventional light bulb, and then the queen’s reputation as saviour of the planet would spread world-wide. Neither would the illumination prince be a problem: wouldn’t he be glad to finally have time for concentrating on the profitable business?
The queen went to have dinner with the other kings and asked them all if she could ban the conventional light bulbs. They could not have cared less about conventional light bulbs. Moreover, this was a good chance to mollify the queen for once. So they treated her extremely well and respectfully.
Consequently, the queen was permitted to ban the conventional light bulb all over the continent. She was more than happy. After all, she had saved the world. Her counsellors, too, were rewarded in a princely fashion.
And unless she died, our queen is still alive and keeps spending her subjects’ money right, left and centre.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
P.S.
I found a video on “King of Germany”. But, please, be careful: this is really total nonsense. However, judging by the number of clicks on youtube, apparently even total nonsense can make you famous today.
And not long ago, I found a book worth reading by Andreas Eschbach with a similar title: “Ein König für Deutschland – A King for Germany”. The first three out of four parts of the book are really great. Towards the end, it gets a little boring, but who says you have to read to the last page?
🙂 The topic “monarchy” seems to be very much “en vogue” these days. And if we fail to install it in Germany, maybe we can try it in Bavaria.
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