“Great power comes with great responsibility” -Uncle Ben, Spiderman.
In the quote, Uncle Ben spoke to the power that rest on any man’s shoulders as he makes his way through life. Ben knew the words of Lord Acton, who said “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely” Often we see the same logic play out when we grab a hold of authority.
Authority is a type of power and with it’s great benefits come the responsibility to use that power in the way its intended. Though many of us often slip and use power to our own ends. After too many abuse, the power is said to “have gone to our heads.” The Tale of the Plural Rebellion is one such tale of corruption and how the letter S learned the hard way..
The Plural Rebellion
The letter S was always a bit of a snake. He slithered through Alphabet land and spoke with a silver tongue. He held himself upon royal airs, as he was the only letter that could make words plural. He could turn an Apple become Apples or an Orange become Oranges.
One day, he was walking through a field and found a boy, a dog, and Apostrophe in the grass. The boy had big chipmunk cheeks covered in tears and Apostrophe did his best to console the young boy.
“Salutations, my name is S.” S said.
“Hello, my name is Apostrophe.” Apostrophe said.
“sincerely, my pleasure. Can I help your situation?”
“Maybe you can, my new friend S. The boy has a bit of a problem. He has met this dog and he wants to keep it. He wants to walk it, feed it, and take care of the dog’s health.”
“Well, that sounds nice for him and the dog, but why is he crying?”
“He cries because he cannot claim ownership. In this clearing, there is the boy, the dog, you and I.”
S took a step back and thought about this situation, he was always a bit of a smarty pants. After a few minutes, he told the boy to stop crying and gathered them in a line. They had to line up just right. The boy stood first with Apostrophe, S , and the dog to follow. They looked like this:
“Boy’s Dog”
With the help of Apostrophe and S, the dog had become the boy’s dog. The letter S discovered that when he and Apostrophe worked together, they could create possession. The boy wiped his cheeks and thanked the pair. He was happy and skipped home with his dog. The pair watched the boy go and were quite pleased with themselves.
Possessions Are A Pleasure
People love to own things and the pair went out to help the world own itself. They went to all the schools and made the bathroom for Girls into the Girl’s bathroom, because females like their privacy. They took tools to the workers and made them the Worker’s tools, to get the job done. They had a wild ride and claimed ownership all over the place but, as every kindergartner learns, the road to ownership is a slippery slope.
The ability to give ownership was a power and the letter S was already a bit tipsy with his plural ability. But with Apostrophe’s help, he became drunk with the power of possession. He began to think he was better than all the other letters and told them. The other letters retaliated to S’s arrogance with jokes and scorn at his expense.
Things got so bad, S started to eat lunch at his own table. He would watch the letters pal around from far away and grew to hate them for their rejection of the best letter. He told himself they were fools and had no comprehension of how great the letter S was. But he would show them. S would rule them all. He would stage a rebellion, but he would need help.
Friendly F Helps in a Fix
F was a friendly guy. He was fun, frivolous, and well liked by all the letters. S saw his popularity and knew F was the key to show them all. He followed the letter F for a week and watched him go about his normal day. Finally, while F took a sip from a water fountain, S walked up to say hello.
“So, how is is going F?”
“Hello S,” F said,” having a good day?”
“Yes, how about you?”
“I’m having a great day.”
“F, I have something to tell you and I don’t think you are going to like it” S looked to F and acted distraught.
“S, you can tell me anything.”
“I hate to be the one to tell you, but all the other letters laugh behind your back.”
“No, they don’t.” F said.
S reached around F’s back with a “Kick Me” sign already tapped to his finger. When he showed F, F thought the sign had been tapped to his back for a long time.
“How did that get there?” F said as he held the sign in his hand.” Why would they do something like that?”
“P said you were a Fuddy duddy.”
“She said that?”
“Yes F, they don’t think you are funny. They think you are a joke.”
F balled up his fist and his face turned a furious shade of red. He couldn’t believe all the other letters laughed behind his back. He was friendly and flirtatious but they stuck humiliating signs on his back. He was filled with rage and S pulled him deeper into his plan.
“Don’t worry, F,” S said, ” I have a plan to get back at them all.”
The letter S told F of his plan and the pair were set to meet back at S and Y’s club house. If S’s plan was to work, he would need the help of his good friend the letter Y.
Y was S’s way into the popular Vowel crowd of “A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y”. The vowels were elitist letter and held their noses up in the air. They were slightly different from the rest of the letters but there was enough of them to form a cool clique and not become lone outsiders. They were a tight knit group but held Y with a bit of distance. Y was sometimes a Vowel but they considered him to be their weakest link.
In turn the letter Y felt their scorn and was also resentful at his position at the back of the alphabet. He had to stand next to Z, who was a real bore.
Their shared malaise at the other letters made S and Y best friends. They even shared a private club house away from the others. Which is where S found Y, after his chat with F.
“Y, I have the most wonderful news.” S said.
“Hello S, please tell me your news.” Y said.
“Today, I played a trick on F and told him P stuck a “Kick Me” sign on his back. I convinced him the other letters hated him. And now he is ferocious and wants to get back at them all.” S said.
“You are devious, my friend, but what is your plan?”
“Here is my plan, F comes at the end of Wolf and Y comes at the end of Army. Together, we could have many “Armys” with many “Wolfs”. Once we have all that might, we could take over Alphabet land.”
Y saw the glint in S’s eye. He knew the plan could be done and joined his friend in an evil laugh. They agreed to meet back at the club house and Y ran off to recruit the other vowels.
Here Come The Judge
the letter Y was careful to avoid E, who was a bit of an Enforcer and a goody too shoes, but he told I,O, and U and they liked what they heard. They wanted to rule over the other letters and felt it was their rightful place. However E, who was also a bit of an eavesdropper, over heard their conversation.
The letter E then rushed to his friend V and together went to see P, who was very political. E told them of S and Y’s plot for a plural rebellion and they all agreed the pair had gone too far. S and Y were known as trouble makers and every society has it’s limits. The pair had to be separated and should rarely meet. The group went to see J, who ruled as a judge, and pleaded their case against S and Y’s Plural Rebellion.
Back at the clubhouse, S sat at the table with F, I, O, U, and Y. He was about to explain his evil plan, when the doors to the clubhouse burst open and everyone was taken into custody. I, O, and U were given a deferred sentences for their small act in the planed rebellion, but a book needed to be thrown at the other three. When they were placed in front of J, the Judge, he gave them a new rule from them to live by.
The Judge stated that S could no longer pluralize words that ended with F and Y. They were too much of a risk to the greater community of letters and shouldn’t meet more than necessary. When a word that ended with F or Y needed to be pluralized, V and E would step in for F, I and E would step in for Y. More than one wolf would be wolves and army would be armies.
The letter J passed a law and made a decree but, as S and Y were best friends, the judge was kind and let S pluralize Y only when the other vowels were around to keep watch over the pair. Boy would remain boys; with O around to keep watch.
Now you know the tale of the Plural Rebellion, the tale of S and Y, a friendship gone astray. Use their tale as a reminder to never let power go to your head and be kind to all. As all mythology, the tale of the Plural Rebelion may not be true but the lesson is correct.
Politics of Words Map
Join us next time for: “8 Parties of Speech”
Or go back to last time: “Vulgar Communication”
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