The Anatomy of Learning

 

This is the story of a prince, who was a heir of a large empire and had a royal upbringing. The prince always had an army of servants to cater to his needs, and the most important part of his cavalcade was the royal poet. The duty of royal poet was to describe the deeds of the prince in the most glorious ways, even the most negligible deeds like walking, eating, and every other act.

There can be two stories that can pursue from this premise based on the character of the prince.

The first prince never faced any criticism and resultantly his conscience never formed any critical perspective for his own actions. His conscience was like a self-serving fortress where he never believed himself to be on the wrong side, even though he had several bad habits like he treated everyone badly including his subjects and elders, he was not good at anything including academics, warfare, and other subjects which can make him an able ruler, but he was so influenced by the description of the poet that he held himself in high esteem, even when he was doing all the wrong things.

In this first premise, the life of the prince was going on smoothly without any hindrance in the confines of his own self-belief and self-projections.

One day, the king died after prolonged illness. The reins of the empire came in the hands of the prince and he became the new king and the ruler of the empire. The burden of entire administration of the kingdom fell on the shoulders of the prince. The ill-upbringing and deficiency of training of new king started to come under the light of public knowledge. There was no duality in his mind which can help him make rational decisions. He used to see only one side of the coin because of his self-serving ego. His judicial decisions became a matter of public shame where innocents were punished and one who were guilty were left to walk free.

Gradually, the new king became a matter of public disgust, and slowly the subject of the kingdom started to turn against the king, the anger of public was on a rise. One day, the popular upsurge turned into a revolution and public overthrew the reigning king, public took over the government in their own hands, and democracy prevailed. The king was left to languish in jail and disowned from the kingdom.

A sad end to the story. Now the second premise, all the situations of the story remains same, except that in this premise, the prince at a very early age developed a compassion with other creatures and empathy to perceive the pains of other people and creatures.

Now in this Premise, the prince thought rationally about everything and always heard the other side before taking any final decision. The prince was not allowed to actively participate in the affairs of the government because of his tender age, but he developed a habit of mooting every governmental affairs in his mind, and contemplated everything consciously at length before his mind is ready to digest it.

He was not actively participating in the government, but he started a journey in his mind from a prince to an able ruler. He replayed all the rationalities in governmental decisions in his mind by forming different sets of collaborative circumstances. A time came when without any conscious effort he was able to take rational decisions on any administrative and judicial matter, and when he was coroneted as a king, he became a popular ruler and ruled the kingdom till he took his last breath. And the period of rule of the king was written in golden letters in the history of the kingdom and the world.