The Once And Future King Analysis

The illegitimacy of leaders is prevalent throughout world history. Leaders initially create a facade that they will reform a region to the benefit of the people. However, once they reach a position of power, their promises to the region are not fulfilled. These leaders refuse to relinquish the power given to them. They control the power by giving a false appearance of themselves to the people. Similarly, knights in medieval times had a reputation for being chivalrous, though this was not the case in many instances. Knights would sometimes plunder villages for their own benefit or perform another misdeed. This pretense of knights being chivalrous blinded many from their true nature. This reveals that humans are easily blinded by false appearances,
For example, Wart “made up his mind that… knight were bound by their vows to help people in distress” (White 21-22) after getting lost in the forest. Wart made the assumption that knights are chivalrous, and thus would help Wart go back home. However, the knight (King Pellinore), explains that “Now I carry fewmets with me all the time… It is the curse of the Pellinores… Always mollocking after that beastly Beast… First you have to stop to unwind the brachet, then your visor falls down…”(White 23-24). Fewmets are the droppings of the Questing Beast. Surprisingly, the knight carries this along with him throughout his quest. Furthermore, he cannot even properly hunt the Beast as he is too busy fixing his visor. None of these characteristics fit the notion of a knight being chivalrous. Instead, White employs these characteristics in King Pellinore to make a satire of leaders who do not meet the expectations for their reputation. In this case, knights have a reputation for their chivalry, yet the description of King Pellinore does not match the concept of chivalry. This illustrates that humans prefer to believe in the concept of a benevolent leader in order to gain some comfort in their troublesome situations. Thus, humans are blinded by these misconceptions of
North Korea recently experienced a change in leaders from Kim Jong-un’s father to Kim Jong-un. Jacobs explains that “North Koreans said, their lives have gotten harder, despite Mr.Kim’s tantalizing pronouncements about boosting people’s livelihoods.” This demonstrates that Kim-Jong-un established his dominance by creating a false appearance that he is less strict than his father in order to gain the trust of his people leading to his rule. However, he did not follow through with his promises, but instead worsened the conditions of North Korea. In comparison with the previously discussed texts, Kim Jong-un also had a false image similar to that of King Pellinore and King Creon and betrayed the trust of their people. All of leaders had false appearances due to the people’s belief in them. This illustrates that humans prefer to place their trust in their leaders in order to alleviate the pressure of their existing problems. Additionally, the concept of illegitimacy reveals that humans believe that false lies of leaders being benevolent because they are afraid to discover the harsh truth that might worsen their current