One sunny day, as Sarkon the Prophet was leaving for the vaporous mists of the spiritual paths, he stumbled upon General Kwar the Dictator, who was even more despondent than usual.

"What bothers you so much?" Sarkon asked, putting a helpful hand on Kwar's shoulder.

Kwar looked up, and noticing that Sarkon was looking down on him, he quickly got up to be in his usual position of superiority again. He straightened his uniform and said, "The Welgon Age has no political system."

"Do we need one?" Sarkon smiled.

"Maybe not," agreed General Kwar. "The problem is that by having no political system, we have one that is not the best one for us."

"We have none but we have one? I don't get it," admitted Sarkon.

"The absence of a political system is a political system called 'anarchy'. It is the absence of all organization. In such a system (or non-system), everybody does whatever he wants."

"That's fine with me," Sarkon smiled again.

"And what if I wanted to grow carnivorous flowers on the borders of the spiritual paths?" Kwar asked, feigning to look menacing.

"That wouldn't be fine with me," Sarkon answered with a hurt look.

"See? Anarchism is the perfect political system for the individual. If you're the only being in the world, then anarchism is the system for you. But as soon as you are more than one, anarchism cannot keep everyone satisfied. Right now, we do have anarchism in the Welgon Age, but the problem is that we are four!"

"Oh." Sarkon took a preoccupied look. "What would be the perfect political system for four people, then?" he asked naively.

"That's where the problems start," admitted General Kwar. "Because it depends what we are up to."

"What would our choices be, anyway? You are in politics – you should know!" exclaimed Sarkon.

"I do, I do… Ok, here's what we have come up with until now to organize society." General Kwar and Sarkon the Prophet both settled down, and the Dictator began listening the various political systems that had been tried throughout history.

"The first system I would like to listen is the one that is probably the oldest after anarchy: theocracy. Theocracy organizes society around a collective illusion that members of this society are supposed to agree with. The rulers of such a society are those who believe most in this illusion, and usually they also happen to be those who do least for this society's physical well being and intellectual advancement. For occupational therapy purposes, and also to prevent members from wondering about the actual truth of their illusion, they think up lots of behavioral antics for people to accomplish. If you cannot stand spiritual uncertainty, if you dislike change, and if you like joining hands and talking to nobody, nodding endlessly in front of a wall, or raising your behind five times a day in a specific cardinal direction, then theocracy is the system for you."

Sarkon made a face. "I hope there is some other choice than theocracy," he commented.

"Oh, and by the way, theocrats base their illusions upon the deeds and teachings of people dead long ago who they happen to call prophets," Kwar added with a wink towards Sarkon.

"The only thing I try to teach people is to think for themselves! And I don't plan to die anytime soon!" Sarkon protested.

"Then you have no future in your profession," Kwar shrugged, still smiling. "Too bad. Anyway," he went on, "the third oldest political system would be autocracy."

"Now I wonder what that would be about," Sarkon commented sarcastically.

"Autocracy," Kwar explained nevertheless, "is the organization of society according to the will and whims of one single person. This person has unlimited authority, and this authority is granted and guarded by a number of underlings who retire all kinds of advantages out of it. If you like being told what to do, if you are afraid of not knowing what to do with your own freedom, if you feel best in a very rigid hierarchical society and if you like being a slave, then autocracy is the system for you – unless you are the autocrat himself, of course, in which case you need to like ordering people around. It is to be noted that theocracy is often a variant of autocracy with the illusion raised to the level of the top autocrat who tells you how to behave."

"Isn't the autocrat also sometimes called a dictator?" Sarkon asked with a wink towards Kwar.

"As a matter of fact, autocrat and dictator are synonyms," General Kwar admitted with a sigh.

"How many underlings do you have, Dictator?" Sarkon asked in a light mocking tone.

"As many as you have followers, Prophet," General Kwar countered sarcastically.

Sarkon made a face and changed subjects. "Are there any ways of organizing society that actually make sense?"

"There are ways that make more sense than the three I already went through, fortunately," General Kwar answered. "Historically, a lot of systems that involved the rule of a small group of persons were tried out to organize society. There was patriarchy, which is the ruling of men; aristocracy, which is the ruling of a small number of families; plutocracy, which is the ruling of the rich; gerontocracy, which is the ruling of the elderly; technocracy, which is the ruling of the educated. This list goes on and on – there have always been societies ruled by a certain social group. All these are defined as oligarchies, an oligarchy being a small number of people organizing society for everyone else."

"Have any of those experiences fared well?" asked Sarkon.

"Not really," admitted General Kwar. "The main problem is that the group that organizes society always ends up centering society around itself and making everyone work for its sake. Oligarchies usually end up in very single-minded societies, with everyone either trying to get rich, or waiting to get older, or trying to become more educated."

"Becoming more educated isn't such a bad thing," Sarkon commented.

"Technocracy admittedly has the best results of all oligarchies, and in some ways there is a little bit of technocracy in all developed societies. In pure technocracies, however, there is too little room for things as art or entertainment, which are very basic needs for humanity. Oligarchies will always be too single-minded, so that even technocracy is far from perfect for organizing society."

"So what else has the human mind come up with?" asked Sarkon.

"After noticing that having nobody who organizes anything – anarchy - was a catastrophe, that having an illusion organizing things – theocracy – was only slightly better, that one person – autocracy - was too little brainpower to manage it all, and that even large groups of people - oligarchies - were not fair enough in organizing society, somebody came up with the genial idea that if maybe everyone got involved, then society could be organized in the best possible way. That's how democracy was tried out."

"Everybody getting involved? Sounds good," admitted Sarkon.

"Democracy is, basically, to listen to what others have to say. It is considered the best political system, indeed, although it has its drawbacks too," warned General Kwar.

"What would the drawbacks be?" wondered Sarkon. "I mean, if everyone is getting involved, what could go wrong?"

"If everyone is getting involved – that's exactly the drawback," explained General Kwar. "First, you have to get everyone interested, which is far from easy. Then there is the cost of getting everyone involved, the cost in time and resources. The sheer numbers –"

"Sheer numbers? We're a total of four people here in the Welgon Age! It's not like getting us four to decide would cost a lot. Heck, we don't even have money around here! Besides, all we ever do is talk, so it's not like we would be too busy or something. Why are only the both of us discussing all this, by the way? Shouldn't all four of us be discussing this political system stuff, according to your democracy theory?" argued Sarkon.

"You cannot require me to remember all the time how small our world actually is! Do you realize how depressed I already get because of our lack of political system? I am speaking theory here, not the tiny reality of our specific place –" General Kwar started complaining.

"I'm going to get cookie – you get Dr. Qworm!" Sarkon ordered in a very autocratic manner. "After all, we don't want anarchy here forever!" he called on walking away, thinking of carnivorous plants alongside his beloved spiritual paths.

* * *

"Ooh, I'm gonna found a party!" cookie the harlequin clapped hands. "Anybody wants to join my party?"

"Technocracy is definitely the way to go," affirmed Dr. Qworm the Mad Scientist. "Scientific progress will allow us to make the world a better place, and –"

"What did I tell you?" General Kwar whispered to Sarkon amidst all the hubbub. "We really are the perfect example of anarchy at work! And it also shows how difficult it is to implement democracy."

"So politically we fall into the most backwards category? Asocial cavemen is what we are, eh? Well, this has to change!" affirmed Sarkon the Prophet. "Please," he started shouting, "I urge everyone to stop talking and to listen to what the others have to say!"

Everyone hushed. An embarrassing silence followed.

"Is this democracy at work?" a slightly puzzled Sarkon finally asked General Kwar after a couple of minutes.

Kwar stroked his chin. "I don't think we do it the right way," he sighed. "Democracy is, basically, debating about something with everyone giving their opinion about the matter, and then deciding according to the will of the majority."

"Fine. What should we debate about, then?" asked Dr. Qworm. "Science –"

"I thought we wanted to debate about implementing democracy," pleaded Sarkon.

"So we'd be using democracy to debate about implementing democracy? We'd be debating about implementing something that's already implemented! What's the point?" Dr. Qworm shrugged.

Sarkon opened his mouth, but then said nothing.

"Who wants to join my party?" asked cookie.

* * *

"To tell the truth, democracy isn't really a political system; it is, rather, a political means of choosing a political system," explained General Kwar. "To make myself clear, democracy tells us how we'll choose our political system, but it still doesn't tell us which to choose. With democracy, we have the means, but we still don't have the end."

"Does that mean democracy could still allow us to choose technocracy?" asked Dr. Qworm.

"It could, indeed," admitted General Kwar. "If enough people agree on it, we could also choose a certain form of autocracy, for which of course I would propose myself as the benevolent candidate," he suggested smugly.

"Isn't autocracy supposed to be the second-worst political system?" criticized Sarkon.

"The choices we would make would only be for a limited period of time anyway," General Kwar sighed, realizing he'd have no chance in getting elected. "That's how democracy works."

"So democracy should allow us to choose a system for organizing ourselves… But until now, everything you proposed us was crap! Aren't there other systems that make more sense?" complained Sarkon.

"I didn't actually finish last time," explained General Kwar. "We stopped at oligarchies, didn't we?" he asked rhetorically.

"Let's hope we go a little further," Sarkon sighed.

"Well. While oligarchies prospered and collapsed around the world, a system slowly put itself into place without anyone really deciding to choose it as the way society should be organized. Nobody theorized about it first; nobody tried to enforce it. It just came. After some time though, it was recognized as a system organizing society that most people adhered to, willingly or not, and a name was given to it: capitalism."

"The way it was put into place appeals to me," commented Sarkon. "How does it work?"

"Capitalism," General Kwar explained, "organizes society around economics. People manufacture things that other people need or want, and for their efforts they take the means to get other things they need or want. These people are called workers. Because there are so many things that are produced, other people act as intermediaries between workers: they gather lots of things and propose them to those that want them. These people are called merchants, and through their services also take the means to get things they want."

"To me this seems like a good way for every individual to satisfy his needs and desires," judged Sarkon.

"Capitalism is a little more complicated than that, though," resumed General Kwar. "First of all, capitalism started developing in all the systems I mentioned earlier, so that the oligarchies who were in charge also took charge of the growing economics of capitalism, taking, as they were used to, a bigger share than what their efforts should have granted them. Even after the implementation of democracy, these inequalities went on for a long time, and only slowly faded, to the point that to this day, some of them remain."

"In a few years though, inequalities should be gone, shouldn't they?" Sarkon asked hopefully.

"It will take more than a few years; as a matter of fact, it will take more than time. It will take the good will of the people who were, in the meantime, put into charge by democracy. Because the inequalities also have another origin."

"What else went wrong?" Sarkon asked, more sad than curious.

"There was more than just one society to organize. Humanity was spread into nations that had not much contact with each other at first. This wasn't bad: it made the world a more diverse place, allowing lives to be lived very differently according to where they were lived, adding up to the diversity of human experience. Each society organized itself in its own manner and set up its own scale of values, and they did not progress at the same pace. While some societies changed very quickly, others remained the same for eons. The societies who changed a lot became stronger, because they had accumulated more diverse experience."

"Change makes one stronger – if one doesn't fight against it," agreed Sarkon.

"In these ancient times, empathy was an unknown concept. People cared for each other only according to the extent of respect, friendship, love, or material or spiritual wealth they could get from each other. When you did not know or understand a person, you wouldn't care for him at all: he would just be a puppet in your landscape.

"Thus the societies that had changed most finally accumulated enough experience to search out the populations that hadn't changed much, and took a lot away from them without caring much about the feelings or even the physical integrity of the people they were intruding upon. This is the second origin of inequalities found in capitalism today," finished General Kwar.

"That's a rather tragic turn of events," admitted Sarkon.

"Then again, it wasn't only for the worst. By being intruded upon, a lot was brought to these societies, and even if they didn't want much of it, the change gave them a lot of experience, too."

Sarkon just nodded, and Dr. Qworm agreed silently too.

"There is a third origin to inequalities found in capitalist societies," General Kwar resumed. "The fact that the means to get the things one wants can be passed to one's children signifies that if you had a great-grandfather who created something that many people wanted, and who thus was given a lot of means to get stuff, you might have inherited those means without really having done anything yourself. Many people view this as not fair, but from the point of view of the great-grandfather, if he really did work hard to satisfy many, many other people's desires, his reward should last longer than his own life, and there is no better way to do it than through his children."

"I guess that's a case of 'fair inequality'," Sarkon commented unenthusiastically.

"It is rather something that looks like an inequality when you compare otherwise similar individuals, but that isn't when you look at the big picture through time," theorized General Kwar. "Anyway… There is a fourth reason for inequalities in capitalism," he went on.

"Another one? Honest, this system sounds more and more shitty to me!" complained Sarkon.

"A lot of people think like you, actually… But I'll come back to that later. This fourth reason for inequalities is a more individual matter. Depending on the place of their birth, on the way their parents raise them, on what education opportunities they are given, on their genes and more simply on whatever life-altering events happens to them, people have more or less chances at faring well in a capitalist system."

Sarkon was taken aback. "You are not speaking of inequalities there – you are speaking of random-induced fate! That's part of life!" he protested.

"Randomness generates inequalities, be it part of life or not," Kwar shrugged. "Anyway – these are the problems a capitalistic organization of society must face. Many people agreed these problems were too much, and proposed something else instead, something that would solve these problems."

"And this something else was…?" asked Sarkon.

"Communism."

* * *

"Will you all join my party?" asked cookie.

"Communism," explained General Kwar, is a system that has been thought up to address and solve the problems inherent to capitalism. It –"

"It must be strictly better than capitalism, then, since it solves its problems," estimated Sarkon. "How does it work?"

"Well, it solved some problems alright, but it also created new ones, new ones that turned out to be, unfortunately, also worse ones," sighed General Kwar. "Besides, it wasn't put into place by a democratic vote, but by a group of people – a revolutionary oligarchy - who used violence to impose it, so that it started in a rather bad way. Anyway – here's how it works." He paused to gather his thoughts, and then went on, "Communism organizes society by identifying everyone's needs and making specific groups work towards answering those needs. Every group works towards answering one need, so that in the end all needs are satisfied evenly for everyone."

"Sounds good…" estimated Sarkon.

"It eliminated the first source of inequalities inherent to capitalism, the grip of a few people upon a majority of resources that was a result of past oligarchic systems, by redistributing resources equally between all," explained General Kwar. "Also, it was supposed to avoid the second source of inequalities inherent to capitalism, the taking away of resources from weaker societies by stronger ones, by extending communism to the whole world and thus satisfy everyone's basic needs everywhere. Finally, the third source of inequalities intrinsic to capitalism, inheritance, was addressed by suppressing property altogether, making all resources go back to the state upon a person's death. They couldn't address the fourth source of inequalities in capitalism, genetic differences, in their times, but with today's genetics and cloning possibilities they would have been able to solve that problem too in the end, I guess, and organize society in the most perfect equalitarian way, with everyone's needs satisfied by everyone's efforts."

"I don't like the cloning part so much, but the rest sounds alright. Now I'm waiting for the catch," commented Sarkon.

"One of the catches was a sad misunderstanding of human nature: the people who put themselves in charge soon took advantage of their position to satisfy more needs than most people, thus immediately tainting the ideal of equality they had started with. Then they wanted their ideal to be stronger than life itself; they exiled, imprisoned, tortured and killed to impose it, thus turning their ideal into a nightmare. These were, however, just mistakes in the setting up of communism, and did not necessarily mean that communism was wrong. The main theoretical flaw of it, its biggest catch, would come up much later.

"The biggest catch was that the persons who thought up communism believed that people just needed to have their needs answered, and that making them do so rationally would be enough to organize society in a fair and equal way. As a matter of fact, communism was a way of organizing society in a fair and equal way, indeed, but they were wrong on one very important point: as awkward as it sounds, people need more than having their needs answered."

"What can you want more than have your wants satisfied?" wondered Dr. Qworm. "Isn't that a contradiction, a logical impossibility?"

"Remember the Flight from Omnipotence theory: if you could do anything you want, you would have all your wants and needs answered immediately, so that you wouldn't have any anymore. This would put you into a situation of not needing anything at all anymore, so that you'd have no more reason to act and no more reason to exist – an extremely nefarious situation which should lead to non-existence, that is death. This very danger, however, makes you want to create a flurry of limits and constraints for yourself to escape your situation of omnipotence, and these limits and constraints then force you to struggle and make you have needs again. This tells us that the creation of new needs is something not only part of life, but actually is the Original Need, the need that started life in the first place. So yes, we need more than just having our needs answered: although we are not aware of it, we need new needs. From the point of view of consciousness (which is the only point of view that actually is), life's evolution from unicellular beings to humans is the multiplication of limits and constraints, of needs and desires, from a couple to billions.

"Communism, unfortunately, does not give much room to the creation of new needs. Since in a communist society needs are identified and not created and people are told what to do, they have not much incentive to think up anything new. Of course, it takes more than a political system to stifle human creativity, and some new needs can be created in this system, but they are few in comparison with the new needs created in a capitalistic way of organizing society. Thus a communist society evolves slower than a capitalistic one; it becomes less dynamic, changes less, and slowly becomes comparatively weaker."

"So capitalism took over communism again," guessed Sarkon.

"Sometimes you're a better prophet than you look like," General Kwar smiled. "Yes, capitalism prevailed, but not without being influenced by communism in a decisive way. Communist ideals were at least understood, and some of them were partially introduced in certain capitalistic societies, forming various levels of socialism."

"Is socialism the perfect system, then?" asked Sarkon.

"People are still not fully satisfied with it," General Kwar shrugged. "People's wants and needs differ too much from one individual to another to have them all agree on one system for organizing society, and that's why the perfect system apparently doesn't exist," he sighed.

"Then I guess we'll have to content ourselves with choosing the system most of us support, or remain without any," decided Sarkon. "What do you all think?" he asked.

"Well – I am a technocrat, and General Kwar is, as we all know, an autocrat… Maybe that's not so great, but at least both of us have a political system we support. What system would you feel best with, Prophet?" Dr. Qworm asked, curious about what the Prophet's choice would be.

Sarkon stroked his beard. "Since all I ever do is think, I guess I would be a theorist…" he started explaining.

"There is no political system called 'theorism'!" sneered General Kwar.

"Well then I'll create one!" countered Sarkon. "I am up to thinking, I feel like doing that all the time, so I'll be a theorist!" he crossed his arms defiantly.

"I am up to despairing right now," sighed General Kwar. "We'll never have a political system."

"Who wants to join my party?" cookie asked once more.

* * *

"The problem is that each of us is up to something different," noted Sarkon. "And sometimes, we don't even know what we are up to," he added with a glance at cookie.

"So… Is there a system for organizing society that is best for people who often change their mind about what they are up to?" asked Dr. Qworm.

General Kwar shook his head. "Only with anarchy can you change the way everything is organized every second, and that's not –"

"If all of you join it, my party will have them all!" exclaimed cookie. And for the first time, General Kwar, Sarkon and Dr. Qworm actually heard him.

"Have all what, cookie?" Sarkon asked kindly.

"All systems for organizing ourselves – if you all join, my party will include them all! It will then just be a matter of coordinating them," he explained enthusiastically.

"So I could still be an autocrat?" asked General Kwar.

"Sure!" agreed cookie.

"And I could become a technocrat?" asked Dr. Qworm.

"Of course!" confirmed cookie.

"And I could remain a theorist?" asked Sarkon.

"Without any doubt!" approved cookie.

"I join!" General Kwar the Dictator, Sarkon the Prophet and Dr. Qworm the Mad Scientist exclaimed in choir.

"Coordinating all our systems will imply that all party members act for the best of everyone, regardless of their own system or location," explained cookie.

"This would mean that from now on, we'll always have to take decisions with the good of the whole in mind," commented General Kwar. "I guess that's the end of my candidacy as Universal Ruler of the Welgon Age," he shrugged. "But since I'm on top of it all through our party anyway, I guess it doesn't matter so much anymore!" he realized, beaming.

"I guess that's the end of my nuclear waste factory," sighed Dr. Qworm. "Well – I never really knew what use it had anyway!" he consoled himself.

"And I won't predict any ends of the world anymore," promised Sarkon. "They never happened anyway," he shrugged.

"How are we going to name our party, though?" asked General Kwar. "'United Nat-' er, 'United Systems' would reflect our vision well enough, I think," he reflected.

"I had thought of the World Party," proposed cookie, and everyone agreed enthusiastically (whether he used his stupendous mental powers to help remained unclear). On that he made a pirouette and, happy that everyone had joined his party, disappeared behind the Welgon Age's hill.

* * *

"So what kind of political system do we live in now?" Sarkon asked General Kwar.

"I don't think a name has been given yet to what cookie came up with…" admitted General Kwar.

"So we can come up with something new? How exciting!" exclaimed Sarkon. He loved thinking of new stuff. "A system that encompasses and coordinates all other systems…" his mind raced. "…Encompassism! The Welgon Age's – our - political system will be encompassism!" he jubilated, overjoyed at having conceived a new theoretical concept once again.

"So we are all encompassists now?" laughed Dr. Qworm. "But remember - I am a technocratic encompassist!" he reminded, still smiling.

"Then I must be an autocratic encompassist," guessed General Kwar.

"And I would be a theorist encompassist," concluded Sarkon. "But the most important is that, indeed, we all are encompassists, and we have our self-tailored political system at last!" He raised his right hand, and Dr. Qworm and General Kwar gladly joined for the high five.

Happy of having solved their world's political problems, they then parted, knowing it wouldn't take long for them to find new ways of working out a better place. The Welgon Age was a small world, after all, and a short walk was all it would take for them to meet again.