Of late it has been just about the funniest era which I ever witnessed, and in my tenure through the history of The People there have been some truly hilarious ones. Of course, humour is somewhat subjective. and you might not find the end as much of a joke as I would. In this you should give me some leeway for if you had been selected to witness the History of The People and never given even a smidge of a reason as to Why Me or For What Purpose, your perspectives might end up being somewhat, shall we say ‘Different’. Oh, I do envy those who I have encountered who know they have a purpose, even if some of them do make me snigger (but never to their faces, that would be dreadfully rude)

Anyway. It all began during one of those eras when The People had been making progress. As usual the path was ragged, full of holes and mis-directions caused by the fogs of Ambition or Ignorance, but The People were getting there. They’d even formulated rules for warfare, not that those were adhered to much, but as the saying goes ‘It’s The Thought That Counts’

It is possible, just possible the Big Cause was all those sort of wars, which weren’t the big proper ones but the small snippy ones which may have given rise to the dissatisfaction. Because aside from getting killed or maimed or having someone close to you killed or maimed no one likes have explosions near to their homes, and even if there are no near explosions no one likes having to pay out for or do without because of some faraway war. Am I right? Yes I am, I’ve been around long enough. Now apart from blaming those in charge whether they deserved it or not, another thing folk will always do is blame others who although had been living thereabout for a few generations, but if the majority didn’t think them proper natives they got part of the blame. Seems a bit unfair, but folk hate having their Expectations foiled, and doing without or losing folk close to them, or worse losing the war; does tend to make them grumpy and irrational. And to make it even more funny, even if the war was over and they might have won it, they were still unhappy about This and That, even if This and That didn’t really impinge on them.

Now folks of The People who are grumpy like that get really cross because they never stop to think about how they could stop the grumpiness by just be grateful with what they had and letting others live likewise. This is where it gets to be really funny. What do they do? Do they work hard to try and make things better? Nnnnnooooh! They go and look for someone who has got very little idea on how to be constructive and who thinks that pulling things down or picking on different folk is the best way to run a nation, never mind if that person couldn’t even organise an orgy in a Place of Pleasure, never mind if they are only interested in themselves, and their group. Folk start to chose them because they talk the Talk folks want to hear, not The Talk that folk ought to listen to. I’ve heard it so many times, I tell you it is sssoooo funny because what’s going to happen is obvious.

The Folk that put The Rulers there do not get their Expectations fulfilled. Thousands of years re-run and back-run and it still happens. Ooooh y’ just gotta giggle. This People! Sorry about the loss of dictation there, but it gets funnier. Wait I’ll compose myself.

There that’s better. Now what happens next is what with all the Expectations not getting fulfilled The People start hitting each even more than usual and burning down the places they live, play and shop in. Yes that’s right? Smash up your hometown makes you feel better. What a hoot. But it gets even funnier, unbelievable right? No, listen here, all these folk who are upset at the ways things are going and complaining no one listens to them, what do they do next. Oh this is good. You’ll like this. They put into power a person or group of persons who take so much control that no one gets to do what they like. Of course it takes a while for the sillies to realise that, but by then it’s too twiddling late! They are stuck with it, while the ones at the top are skimming off the cream and the only danger they have is from each other. All The People doing it.

At this point the leaders having got everyone under control get cross with other leaders because they don’t see their point of view, which is a bit silly because there’s more than one way to run a country right? They just can’t see that. There’s those that reckon very rich folk being allowed to shake down the ordinary folk is the way. Others say no and they do the opposite and they say The State knows best, so no one is allowed to be rich, except the leaders but not so that you’d notice. Meanwhile some say the answer is that if you decide everything is done a religious way then all will be good, and those who don’t believe your way are bad; the leaders reckon they will get to save their god the trouble and they kill the not-believing folk. There are some rulers mix all sorts of different ways to rule, and those are really amusing because they allow folk to vote; the way they are told that is.

This goes on for a while, then the Grumpiness reaches a high level, folk starting hitting folk who work for the Rulers and breaking things belonging to The Rulers. That’s when the Governments do the same back to them to say how they like it. The folk don’t, and reckon another country has got it right, which means every government sets up groups of grumpies in other governments’ lands, and there is lots of hitting, and wars, which get a bit bigger. What used to happen was that eventually everyone would either get fed up of the war or there wouldn’t be many left to send off to get killed or maimed, so everything would settle down. Until the next one that is.

This time it was all of The People All of The Time. In the shape of a war which was very, very, very long and big. All the leaders had plans and expectations but none of those worked out and there was so much damage and loss of life that it looked like folk wouldn’t make it through. Well I could have told them that, for once I did try to in different disguises but The People  were so mixed up they just threw things at me, or tried to have me executed, which naturally never worked. I just said ‘Well spoofle to you,’ then. ‘I know what’ll happen next,’

Yes, they started to run out of not just of the sophisticated stuff they began to mess up the basics of food, shelter and even weaponry. In the case of the latter they had to start to stab each with stick and throw stones or if they were really strong and co-operative hurl big rocks. What was another bit of chucklesome was that they’d lost all the ways of making farming work, and how to hunt without being killed, and thus they decided all what was left was to eat each other. Yes, that’s right. Can you believe it? Of course that led to a lot of creeping about, leaping out on each other, knocking head and stabbing bodies but they kept enough sense to prepare and cook properly. The wars just declined to simply that creeping and crawling followed by leaping out to kill and then munch.

Here’s where the laughable lesson comes in, since Folk were so busy killing and eating each other and those were their only expectations the rest of Life began to recover and some it seeing as how The People were not that strong or swift, lots of Life preyed on them. Oh my, but that is HILARIOUS  to watch!

‘Enough Sister. Enough. What you are describing is a terrible tragedy. It is nothing to laugh at. All that potential wasted. All that suffering. If you could not have handled it yourself you should have called out to us,’

‘Huh! Says you Brother. Why should I have troubled you? You had your own tasks and you had been told or given enough clues to learn yours. You were all busy. It was not right to distract you from your Folk,’

‘But Sister. Had you not thought to reach out? Truly you should have known you could not have been left alone to observe a People and final grow so weary as to find the whole process amusing. Surely you should have realised that was not expected of you?’

‘Dear Sister did you not discern earlier on that the is not the first time I have discussed my situation with Brother or Sister? See how our Brother shakes his head. I see you Brother, you may look and sound different, but I sense you. We have conversed before, and you could not change me then either. For I was never told to do aught but observe by those Unseen. If you ever met them then I am glad for you. Not for me. Not my duty. Not for These People. What else was there to expect? Did I not tell you I did try but they would not listen, and thus, soon they will be gone. All that talent, all that potential, all those gifts, wasted because they thought being simplistic and intolerant was still a good idea. Now that is something to laugh at. A warning within a joke. Truly Sister and Brother I tell you Irony has the Final Say, or maybe Nature. still working on that point. Anyways I bid you both well and would have you return to your own allotted and worthy tasks,’

And turned my back on them which might have been just a bit rude, but since this was my patch of Creation there was not much they could do about it. I was never convinced by their ethics and since The Unseen was or were not telling me otherwise that was that. Still since I have very low expectations in that area I don’t worry about it.

I have this new amusement now, sitting out of sight of The People; there are still a few millions of them about the place and I am throwing small stones at their heads. They yelp, jump up and glare around then picking up a big stick go rushing off in what direction they thought the stone came from. Meanwhile I’ve done the same to another one. As expected they crash into each other; well you can guess the rest. They’d be hitting each other anyway; I might as well get a few extra chortles out of the business.

Some day they will have all died out. By then I will have manufactured a great big plinth and upon that will be inscribed.

‘Here lie a People who could have been so much but instead fell to the call of Terminal Stupidity’.

At that stage I expect I will find out whether I did a good job or not.