by Horia Hulea
Chapter 11
The Master Scientist is calmly swinging his metallic tail while having one of his many conversations with himself in his little inner forum.
He had known this day would come.
He had known it the moment he'd been promoted to Master Scientist.
If someone would have told him all those years ago that his IQ would be serving the delusions of an megalomaniac idiot, he would have laughed with big fat echoes rolling through the Great Halls of Progress.
Back then, his young self had dreamed of big innovations and breakthroughs and great scientific revolutions.
Back then, he'd had enthusiasm and all his parts had been 100% original and organic.
Back then….
But he hadn't laughed one bit after the former Master Scientist had bestowed the "honor" of being his successor upon him and let him in on all the little secrets and all the little advices that every Master Scientist passed from one generation to another.
Oh, how the world changed after that talk.
From the murkiest historical times that were preserved in ancient paw scratches, it seemed that catkind is doomed to be a continuous cycle of power-greedy, close-minded overlords, killing one another in succession. Each one living in their dysfunctional reality where they are the greatest thing that ever purred on this Earth, while at the same time spreading happy illusions mixed with fabulous, wondrous stories of triumph and achievements to every wide-eyed kitten nation.
And nobody questions anything.
It is simply natural that the ruler is the most imaginative leader, the most gifted musician, the most illustrious tactician, master in this and that! (Such hoarders of titles, these rulers. They reach a point where you couldn't find one single, lousy branch of catkind achievement where they weren't a master already.)
And nobody questioned anything...
Always The Glorious is the smartest, brightest, and all the other superlatives. Always The Glorious is entitled to all decision. Always it makes absolute and perfect sense for all to listen to him, since The Glorious is the self-proclaimed leader of all kitties, and it is absolutely normal for everyone else to do his most outrageous claims.
And nobody questions anything….
And the saddest part is that all the other nations of catkind are the same. Each one with its own special fat cat tyrant, each one with its own kind of dystopian regime and dysfunctional society. All of them dreaming gloriously of triumphant progress while not being able to build a working sewer or fix a lousy bridge!
Each tyrant shitting in gold litters while the masses starve, dreaming of fishes.
Is catkind forever trapped in this cycle? Is cat society ever going to move forward?
I mean, look at our leader of morons! He's not even able to scratch his own ass. Thus, he came up with an entire branch of government for this purpose alone. That is what those cats will do their entire career: scratch The Glorious Ass. Their lives depend on it, their promotions and pay raises, their future in the hierarchy and status symbol.
And nobody questions anything….
Why doesn't anyone find all this absurd? Why isn't anyone questioning all this? Why does everyone listen to him? Can't you see he's just a fat cat who's not even able to move? You bring his food already chewed and collect his poop from his ass in golden trails … just because! All you have to do is put a fish bone in his food, and he will choke to death … and nothing will matter.
He just sits there meowing, and everyone listens blindly to what he says. And eventually he will be drowned by his successor, and not even a lame tear will be shed after him.
Instead, they will all rejoice and bow to the next Glorious.
It's as if it simply doesn't matter who sits on that throne. The ruler can be the most incompetent and incapable raving lunatic … and people will follow him. It's as if they don't even bow to the cat; they bow to the Role. A Role that is eternal, and it does not matter who is playing that Role. A rock can sit on the throne, and all the cats will simply bow, because it has the leader Role.
Everyone listens to The Glorious not because he is the most ferocious, fastest, and powerful predator pouncing on his subjects. Everyone listens to him solely because he fills the Role.
As simple as that!
Just look at him! He's not doing anything!
He has no authority. There is no authority. There are only people who listen to orders.
He is not the greatest fighter or the best lover. He has no telepathic powers or some magic hold on everyone. He's not even able to turn around and look at you when he speaks. He's just the current idiot that happens to fill the Role.
And that Role is not the only one. Every other cat seems to fill their own unbreakable Role. The Roles of servants, the Roles of workers, the Roles of scientists….
Kill The Glorious, and another Glorious will take his place. Kill every cat in this social class, and other cats will take their place, all falling into the same templates forged hundreds of generations ago. It's like the king, the elites, the army, the merchants, the workers, and you name it are just eternal Roles! Untouchable, eternal Roles that only change actors.
Catkind's entire recorded history is set in stone and has not moved for thousands of years.
And the future won't move either.
That is why the Master Scientist invented the Time Machine.
That is why he sent the little kitty to see how an entire species can go extinct.