Circles and Squares

i wrote this today .. i was bored .. felt like writing .. enjoy :)

The circles lived happily together on a small patch of land. They would fight and curse each other every now and then, but it was harmless in the sense that nobody ever died. Besides, they really were happy so in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter if they occasionally got into a little argument.
One day the squares came to live with them on their land. The circles didn’t seem to mind. “Go ahead,” they said, “We don’t own this place anymore than you do, you’re more than welcome to stay”. The circles accepted the squares into their community. But even if the circles did not wish to accept the squares, they had no mechanism with which they could prevent the squares from joining them on their land.
And so the two groups coexisted peacefully for a few years. One day the squares called a meeting. They assembled everyone; squares and circles. Once everyone had gathered, the leader of the squares began to speak. “Seeing as how this place is growing in size, I think we need some rules for this place, and we need a government to make sure that those rules are met”. The squares began clapping. Some of the circles were clapping as well.
The leader of the squares continued, “I hereby declare myself king of this place. Furthermore, this land shall now be known as Lim.” Once again, the squares began clapping – much louder this time. The circles did not join. Instead, they looked at each other. Their faces seemed to say is this really happening?
The newly self-appointed king went on to read a long list of rules he expected everyone to abide by in order to make sure that “life in Lim would always be wonderful”.
Some of the circles immediately went home after the meeting and packed their things and left the land. They refused to live under these new conditions. But the majority of the circles stayed behind. Some of them even bought into what the king had said. They honestly believed he was there to help them.
Days passed by, and the government grew bigger and bigger, new positions being invented everyday, more often than not it was a square who filled that position. And along with the new positions came new rules. It seemed that for every new position, ten new rules were invented.
The circles began to grow restless. They camped out in front of the king’s castle in protest. But they were ignored. A few of the reckless ones tried to riot and loot the town. But they were quickly arrested and hung in a grand public scene.
Some of the square officials also began to feel that things were crooked and left the castle. Some joined ranks with the circles, and some left Lim altogether. People came and people went. But the king remained in his castle, paying no heed to anyone or anything around him; his only concern being to remain the king.
Eventually, the circles became a minority, with the squares controlling every aspect of life in Lim. Occasionally a circle would get ideas and try to protest but he would either be ignored or killed – depending on the size of his protest.
Needless to say, life was miserable for the circles. But the squares were beyond happy. They were ecstatic. And the king, the king was happiest of all. He was safe in his castle, knowing that all of his square subjects loved him and the few circles that hated him couldn’t do a thing about it. And that was how life came to be in Lim. Circles miserable, squares happy, king happiest.
But one day, the squares got into a little bit of a quarrel. They were trying to decide what color to paint the sidewalks. They were so proud of their sidewalks. They boasted about all the planning that went into the process and how they had been built so perfectly and how the circles that lived here before them didn’t even have sidewalks. But now that it was time to paint the thing, they could not come to an agreement. Some wanted red, others green, another group wanted blue, and so on. The shouting got louder. Punches were thrown. A couple of stray bullets were fired. And so things continued to escalate until finally a complete war broke out between the parties involved.
The king, so used to ignoring the sounds outside his castle, could not ignore the loud explosions and gunfire he was hearing now. He ran quickly to the window to see what was happening to his precious Lim. He opened the window and shouted out, “Fellow squares, stop in the name of all that is holy”. But nobody heard him. It wouldn’t have made any difference if they did. They were all kings now.
Just as he had once ignored the calls of the circles coming from outside his castle yesterday, so too did his fellow squares ignore the calls coming from inside his castle today.