Dear Enmebaragesi of Kish,
You were our first big experiment.
Before kings, before crowns, before constitutions, there were people trying to live together without killing each other. And somewhere between irrigation ditches and city walls, someone said, “We need rules. We need leaders. We need order.”
Fair enough.
Since then, we’ve tried all sorts of answers to the question who should be in charge?
God picked them.
Strength picked them.
Bloodlines picked them.
Votes picked them.
Sometimes bullets picked them.
We’ve justified power through Divine Right, through force, through evolutionary survival, and through the social contract – the idea that we collectively agree to give up some freedom in exchange for protection and stability. None of these systems has been perfect. Some have been disastrous. But all of them were attempts to solve the same problem: how do we live together without chaos?
Governments, at their best, exist to serve practical needs. Protection from external threats. Systems of justice. Roads, bridges, clean water. Education. Healthcare. The boring-but-essential stuff that makes daily life possible at scale.
And yet, somewhere along the way, the relationship got… confused.
Is government meant to rule over us or serve us?
Is power something we submit to – or something we lend?
Is the state our parent… or our employee?
Anarchy lurks in the background of all these questions, waving a hand and saying, “Maybe we don’t need kings at all.” Maybe we’ve outgrown rulers. Or maybe we still need coordination, just without domination. That tension never really goes away.
So, dear reader, here’s where we pause and turn to you.
If these are the reasons we need a government – protection, justice, infrastructure, care – how is it working for you?
Do you feel ruled… or represented?
Served… or managed?
We’ll dig into the messy parts soon. For now, we’re just asking the oldest political question there is:
Who made you king – and why?