oyal Dilemma

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

The Baron, with his fiancée Lady Angela of Alpine Castle, liked to walk around Lilliland. They didn’t care for an official escort of castle guards. They just wanted to be two people, alone with each other, enjoying an afternoon walk around town.

Sometimes they noticed some people looking at them a little too long. Sometimes it was a member or two of the castle guard in disguise at a safe distance. It seemed that Professor Hamblin, the chief advisor to the Baron, insisted on a guard just to be safe and secure, as the Baron insisted that Professor Hamblin have a guard, just to play it safe. So they both compromised a little.

It seemed that the Baron felt too insulated and isolated from the public. How can you know, with some accuracy, about what concerns the Lilliland public if you have to read about it in written reports. It was much better to talk with the people directly to know what concerns they had.

But even when the public spoke directly with the Baron, he felt they might be engaging in polite conversation and telling the Baron what they thought he wanted to hear.

In olden times, there was a “kill the messenger” philosophy among some dictators and kings. If the messenger brought good news, he was decorated, and if the messenger brought some bad news, he was killed. Well, messengers who valued their own lives would always bring good news to the king, even if it was not totally the truth, so that they would be rewarded rather than killed.

Many monarchies fell because it became a battle between the haves and the have-nots. The Baron believed in a large middle class in order to have a society survive. The have-nots should be protected and given food, clothing and shelter, and the haves should not display their wealth to the consternation of all concerned.

The royal dilemma would never get out of hand if the majority of the population was the middle class and they played an important part of the destiny of Lilliland.