Simeon the god

Comes now the story of Simeon the god

Simeon, plainly put, was an idiot. And like many idiots, he was ignorant as to the extent of his idiocy. As is also customary with idiots, he craved power.

In a fit of rage about losing a potential job to a woman who was more educated and qualified than he, Simeon cursed the sun and begged the sun for the power of a god. The sun rebuffed Simeon’s request, saying that his reign would be horrifying and catastrophic. Simeon declared that he was intelligent and wise. If he were given the power of a god, he would use it judiciously, he told the sun.

The sun still refused and told Simeon he was an idiot and that the only reason Simeon wanted such power was due to the fact his ego had been bruised. But, the sun added, if Simeon could prove that he could keep a cool head and learn to listen to others, the sun would then grant him the powers of a god on a temporary basis.

So Simeon set out to improve his demeanor, taking courses in relaxation and anger management to soothe his ill temperament. Whenever he was confronted with a situation wherein he would normally express anger, he bit his tongue and stayed silent. He did this for many years.

His hair turned gray and then it fell out. Decades of forcing himself to be calm made Simeon into a tranquil being. The sun, however, was not fooled. It knew that Simeon only really controlled his external reaction. Despite this, the sun granted Simeon the power of a god anyway, determining that Simeon had worked hard to achieve an outward mild manner.

The sun imparted its notice to Simeon that he was a god but only with the ability to do what he wanted with impunity from the physical world. No one, or no thing could stop him. However, Simeon would not be omniscient nor would he have any heightened senses or vision of the future.

Simeon did not care and set out to use his powers. At first, he was measured and controlled thanks to the decades of mental conditioning to be such. Then one day, he met a woman. She was about Simeon’s age and looked somehow familiar to him. It took him a few moments before he realized she was the woman who earned his sales job. Simeon fought long and hard with himself but succumbed and made her heart stop, killing her. The rush of power made him feel better.

The catharsis was short lived. Simeon then went about killing others. He started with politicians who did not please him and then it was celebrities or other public figures. All of the deaths came from stopping the beat of their hearts.

When the prime minister enacted a law that Simeon did not care for, Simeon decided to kill her as well. But he chose something with more optics. He arrived at the House of Governance and walked through the front door. When the guards attempted to stop him, their hands could not grip him or restrain him. It was as though Simeon’s body was more like a ghost.

Simeon paced through the highly-secure building until he found the prime minister, who was giving an interview to a television crew. He walked up to the stately woman and caused her to vaporize into a wisp of ash. Her death was televised for the world to see and soon people realized that Simeon was a walking god.

Armies tried to stop him. Scientists tried to understand his existence. No one could manage to control Simeon as he had power over all matter in the world. He continued to kill the powerful, the rich and those who criticized him (who were neither powerful or rich). Simeon did not kill because he enjoyed it, he simply wanted people to worship him and respect his power. But they would not. So he killed on.

The world descended into chaos until the moon had had enough. Ordinarily the moon enjoyed mischief but this was different. It visited Simeon at night and took away the manufactured god’s power. The sun was angry with the moon but the moon did not care.

Once the world realized that Simeon was no longer omnipotent, they seized him and executed him by slashing his throat and then burning his corpse. The overkill was justified by those in power as they feared that Simeon’s abilities might return.

As the moon watched Simeon burn, it asked the sun why it allowed the idiot to have so much control. The sun replied that it wanted the world to see why one person should never be so empowered. Simeon was a deterrent, the sun said.

Deterrents do not work and they only give the illusion that a matter has been addressed, the moon responded. Systemic problems cannot be solved with justice imposed on one individual, it said.