There Once Was an Extreme Man

A true fable of how trying to control extreme men is a fool’s catastrophe

There once was a man, an extreme man. After the extreme man came back from a big war, the extreme man was sent to check up on fringe extreme political parties. One of those fringe extreme parties he was sent to check on he joined. Then the extreme man rose in their ranks and became their leader. The extreme man became the leader of the party he had been sent to keep tabs on, to spy on.

Soon, the country’s head was having difficulty unifying the legislature. The head of the country made the extreme man the sort of vice head of the country. One of the country head’s advisors had said of the extreme man, “We have [the extreme man who was sent to monitor an extreme party and became its leader] hemmed in.”

That extreme man, sent to spy on the party that was now his, became the country’s only head when the country’s head died.

That extreme man went about changing how the country’s government ran. Then he sent armies into the world and into the streets of the country he now lead. The extreme man’s armies killed millions, whole cities were wrecked and he tried to wipe many groups of people from the face of the earth.

Many of the world’s countries raised armies to stop the extreme man, and eventually, after the world turned continents to ash and tens of millions of people to corpses, the extreme man took his own life.

The continents that the old extreme man turned to ash were rebuilt. The dead were buried and mourned.

Many years later, once most of the people who had been alive during the time of the extreme man had passed away themselves, in a different country a new verse of history began.

An extreme man became the head of this newer, different country. When his time as leader of this country was up, this new extreme man used violence to try to change how this newer country's government ran.

Instead of stopping the extreme man in his tracks, and punishing the extreme man, one of this new country’s political party heads decided he too could control the extreme man. The party head figured he had the extreme man hemmed in. This party’s head thought the extreme man could unify the country’s legislature behind the party head.

It didn’t work, as history rhymes. It rhymes loudly for those who ignore the earlier verses of its song.

One of the continents that the old extreme man turned to ash is on fire again.

© Copyright January 6, 2023, David August, all rights reserved davidaugust.com

David August is an award-winning actor, acting coach, writer, director, and producer. He plays a role in the movie Dependent’s Day, and after its theatrical run, it’s now out on Amazon. He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, on the TV show Ghost Town, and many others. His artwork has been used by multiple writers, filmmakers, theatre practitioners and others to express visually. Off-screen, he has worked at ad agencies, start-ups, production companies, and major studios, helping them tell stories their customers and clients adore. He has guest lectured at USC’s Marshall School of Business about the internet.