The Good Times

It is not easy existing as I do, I am royalty living amongst the wretched peasants and I struggle each day to reconcile my accursed situation.  In the past seventy years, I have suffered as a commoner, toiling in the mud each day under the oppressive thumb of the industrial giant that rules this world.  I have reluctantly succumbed to the status quo of this time and I am ashamed of myself for it. 

At the start of each day, I would wake and prepare for the mind-numbing activities this contemporary society has declared necessary for mutual survival.  Like a mindless drone I fell in line with the multitudes, I used mass transit, I recycled, I worked a job with limited opportunities, and I repeated the madness over and over with predetermined precision.  Each day of drudgery was a carbon copy of the previous day, stretching back to the beginning of a “career”, all the way to the promise of relaxation in the “golden years” of retirement.  I will break these chains of bondage and forge a new path for me and for those willing to follow.  

The modern world sickens me with its overabundance of conveniences which are made available to everyone, even those whose efforts are less than productive.  Technology has replaced the traditional society with a digital underworld that consumes the ambitions and individual goals that used to drive people to greatness.  The internet is the vehicle for our transactions, entertainment, social gatherings, consumption, education, and employment.  I long for the simpler times when the common man would till the earth and tend to his livestock for the survival of his family.   Where those men served a greater man, who provided for their safety and wellbeing with unchallenged authority.  Surely this world can be molded into the likeness of what I desire, the model of perfection created long ago when knights fought for noble causes and willingly defended their kingdoms with their lives. 

This life of subjugation would not be mine to suffer had fate dealt me the hand I truly deserve.  I was born, too late, for a world where people knew their place and fear kept them there.  Not this world where everyone is a winner, and everyone gets a piece of the pie.  Just today, as I strolled down Hamilton Boulevard, I witnessed a young man deliberately vandalizing the property of another with absolutely no concern of consequence.  He acted as if it was his right to do as he pleased, and the thought of repercussions never entered his feeble mind.  These people have entirely too much idle time to invest in their works of evil and entirely too little deterrence for those acts.  At the end of the nineteenth century no youth would ever dare such an act of public defiance.  The fear of retribution would ensure his complete compliance with the law.  Currently there tends to be no pride in one’s country or kingdom in this world, and oh how I wish to change that.  

Societies are stronger and safer when they are governed by a sovereign monarch with absolute power.  I have the supernatural ability to be that ruler, but I was brought about entirely too late to stop the inevitable change that human development brings.  However, in recent years I have begun to bring others into my confidence, and have shared with them my plans, but our numbers remain small, for now.  When the time is right, we will rise to create a new perpetual society that will prosper for generations to come.  The people will live in peace under my protection and guidance just as it was when the great kings ruled their lands, with the help from their many subordinates.  I will enlist the help of the local gypsy populace to conduct daily mundane tasks, thus giving them a purpose, they would otherwise not know.  The common people will realize that farming and hunting will become the primary means for food production, trades will emerge as the vocations of the successful.  This land will finally know true peace and tranquility.  People will no longer be idle; they fill each hour of their days with the necessary work to maintain the lifestyle they choose. 

My kingdom will be safe from interlopers who desire to do damage to it.  Roving bands of spies will keep me apprised of the ugly secrets kept by the unsavory characters that dare to enter my domain with ill intent and I will deal with them swiftly.  There will be no tolerance for lawlessness and the debauchery that is so rampant in this twenty-first century.  My children and I will create a world like the one I long for.  There will be no materialistic illusion of success dangled in front of each person as they are persuaded to produce for the enrichment of a few, instead each person will produce for their own families survival and personal satisfaction without fearing theft and deprivation by those with ill intent.  We will reestablish the society created and sustained by my forefathers in the old country and I will regain my pride.  The people will be my subjects and I will rule over them fairly and equitably from inside my castle walls. 

My castle will be built of steel and glass rather than stone and mortar of the mountainous region my line hails from, but from it I will rule this land and its inhabitants with the same fairness and sternness as would be expected of the great Impaler from the Carpathian Mountains.  The chronicle of my sire’s maker, written by the Irishman Bram Stoker so many years ago, has been an invaluable inspiration for my plans.  Though I cannot go back in time to live the life I should have been blessed with, I can work to create it here in this time.  I work towards that goal each night when I prowl the city streets, increasing the size of my family when I hunt the alleyways and slums for the derelict refuse this society discards.  Unfortunately, this will take an exceptionally long time to achieve, but time is the one thing I have an abundance of.  I believe I will visit the young man I saw on Hamilton Boulevard earlier today and invite him into the family.