FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD -- A PARABLE

As they prepared for their ritual leadership council by the sea, the Rich Wizards of Oz faced a problem: How to persuade the Munchkins to follow a new Rich Wizard leader who would make the other Wizards richer while the Munchkins languished in hardship and despair? There was a further complication. Another Rich Wizard had already done this not long ago and caused a time of great troubles in Munchkinland. So the Wizards asked themselves, “How do we convince the Munchkins to follow the Yellow Brick Road to ruin so that we may rule and prosper?”
Cleverly, four years earlier the Wizards had arranged for a young, dark-skinned Outsider to become the leader of Oz during the time of troubles. They named him the ‘Wicked Warlock from the City of Winds,’ and then hindered his every attempt to improve the plight of the Munchkins, allowing only a token remedy to pass so the Wizards could then pronounce it a failure. Thus, in one fell swoop the Wizards duped the Munchkins into believing the Outsider, not the earlier Wizard leader, was responsible for the woes in Munchkinland. To preserve this illusion, they made sure the previous Rich Wizard remained out of sight in the faraway plains, lest by his presence at the gathering by the sea the Munchkins be reminded of the calamities attending his time behind the curtain.
Having thus solved the inconvenient complication of the previous Wizard leader, the clan of Wizards plotted to convince the Munchkins to follow the new Wizard leader.
“We must persuade the Munchkins that our new Wizard is really one of them at heart and thinks only of their welfare,” said one.
“But he is not one of them,” said a doubtful Wizard “He, like our previous Wizard are sons of Wizard leaders. How do we convince the Munchkins that he is one of them?”
Another Wizard spoke: “We must tell of how both his and our forbears were themselves once humble Munchkins, who by hard work and sacrifice made it possible for them to become ruling Wizards in the land of opportunity that once was Oz – that is, before the Wicked Warlock led Oz astray, away from the Wizard code of merit. We must tell them that the dream of freedom and opportunity has become the nightmare of dependency, that the undeserving are being fed by the Wicked Warlock while self-reliant, hardworking Munchkins go hungry.” 
“Exactly,” said a third, “Let them know that no one should be trapped in the circumstances of their birth; we should be free to go as far as our work and our talent can take us. The Munchkins will then believe they too can become Rich Wizards if they but follow our Wizard code and cast out the Wicked Warlock.”
“How then, does our new Wizard leader propose to rule?” asked the doubting Wizard.
“Exactly the same way as our previous Wizard leader did,” came the reply.
“Huzzah!”www.the-predicament.com