Cook County News Herald

Fact or fiction?


Imagine someone writing a story about a person born into riches, inheriting a fortune and using his rich background to better himself beyond anybody’s belief.

Using deceit, lies and cunning, he builds himself an empire filled with palaces, royal parks where one chases a little white ball, and heaven reaching towers rivaling the famous (or infamous) Tower of Babel. They carry his name for all to see, adore and even worship. He gathers friends about him, but when they no longer suit his needs, he dismisses them without any regret or concern. Instead he mocks them, makes fun of them, derides them.

He considers himself so knowledgeable, claiming that he has the right or wrong opinion about every item in the encyclopedia, even though he has never opened its pages. His value of people is based on how much they can enrich him and his family. Women, of which he has many encounters, are looked at as objects of self-gratifying sexual pleasure.

He eventually rises to become the most powerful person in the world and is worshiped as a messiah, a ruler of the whole earthly realm for now and in the future.

His adversaries, which he considers and calls enemies, are held to be agents of the devil and must somehow be destroyed. Yet, it is not only his believers who worship him! He worships himself as god-sent; praising himself at every moment, claiming he is the greatest that ever was and is!

Imagine such a story! It would never be believed, never be published, never made into a movie. It is beyond anybody’s imagination. No one with a right mind would invest in such a faux tale. It would be laughed at as the most hideous fiction ever written.

But it is no fiction. The faux tale is not faux! The story is alive today!

Jake Hjorth
Grand Marais

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.