Eudaimonia: When Being Human Was Enough”

From Laraib Zahra

Once upon a time, far from Earth, beyond the reach of our skies, there existed a planet called the Worthlands.

In the Worthlands, there was an equal proportion of humans and ghosts. Whenever a human was born, a little ghost was born by their side. These little ghosts were called Hounds. Every Hound possessed a superpower: it could know exactly what its human companion was thinking. The entire planet was ruled by three powerful ghosts, commonly known by humans and Hounds as the Great 3Gs. Each of the three had a separate kingdom. They were the Ghost of Guilt, the Ghost of Productivity, and the Ghost of Fear.

The Ghost of Guilt was the eldest of the three. He controlled the capital of the Worthlands. He had his own Guilt Police and Guilt Pumps. Guilt was a magical liquid found inside these pumps. The Guilt Police, along with the Hounds, kept a constant check on the behaviour of the people in the capital. Their job was to make sure that nobody ever ran out of fuel—the fuel of guilt.

Whenever a person was caught running out of guilt, the Hounds immediately reported them to the Guilt Police. They were then provided with more guilt fuel to make sure that nobody went “insane.” The biggest crime in the capital was the Rest Crime.

As soon as a person became exhausted and decided to take some rest, the Hounds would begin fiercely whispering in their ears:

“Strong people don’t stop.”

They would tell them not to rest until they reached somewhere. But where exactly this “somewhere” was, nobody really knew.

Sometimes, when a person was genuinely unable to work any further because of an overwhelming workload, the Hounds would call specialised therapists known as the Fear Feeders from the Kingdom of Failure for counselling—a kingdom I shall discuss in greater detail later.

On the other hand, the entire north of the Worthlands was ruled by the second Great Ghost: the Ghost of Productivity. Unlike the Guilt Police, who were actually in charge of the capital, there was no such police force in the north. Instead, there was a ministry known as the Ministry of Merit.

The humans there were never supposed to sit idle. Instead, they were expected to work harder and harder to make sure that they remained at the top of the list maintained by the Ministry of Merit. Every year, there was a grand ceremony known as the Annual Worth Ceremony. The humans who earned the highest number of merit points received a golden star carved with their names in the Worth Register of the Ministry of Merit.

Every time a human refused to rest in order to increase their productivity, the Hounds would greet them by saying:

“Congratulations! You have earned three merit points.”

Humans were comparatively happier in the north than in the other two kingdoms because here, they were rewarded with golden stars bearing their names. The more golden stars a human had beside their name in the Worth Register, the more likely they were to become part of the Hounds—the most respected position in the Worthlands.

After all, the Hounds had the superpower to read human minds, and they could even fly.

Their slogan was:

“You could be doing more.”

To the south lay the third kingdom—the Kingdom of Failure, ruled by the Great Ghost of Fear. This kingdom was the most terrible of them all. The humans there were weak and diseased. Every second person was a victim of anaemia. They looked as though they had been starving for days, perhaps even weeks.

On the contrary, the Great Ghost of Fear was the fattest of the three ghosts.

The reason for this strange contrast was hidden in the Hounds.

Unlike the Hounds in the north and the capital, the Hounds in the south had a distinct name. They were called Fear Feeders.

The Fear Feeders had one duty: to sense fear-bearing thoughts in human minds and suck them out, because the Great Ghost of Fear fed on those thoughts.

There were many kinds of fears that humans carried in that kingdom:

The fear of not doing enough.

The fear of getting left behind.

The fear of failure.

And many more.

The Fear Feeders collected these thoughts and presented them to their master. The Great Ghost of Failure had one dish that was especially dear to him. It was his favourite dish of all:

“What If” Spaghetti.

“What If” Spaghetti was a special dish found in all three kingdoms, but it was particularly abundant in the Kingdom of Failure. The humans looked starved because they had to constantly produce fear in their minds so that they could feed it to the Fear Feeders.

These fears were produced through a process called whispering, carried out by Hounds that were not themselves Fear Feeders.

Then, one day, something unexpected happened.

A few Hounds disappeared.

Seven Hounds.

Everyone in the Worthlands was deeply concerned about their sudden disappearance.

The Guilt Police, along with other investigation departments, launched a search operation. But not even a single missing Hound was found. The humans whose Hounds were missing were arrested and questioned. The results of the investigation shocked everyone in the Worthlands.

The Hounds could only exist if their humans obeyed them.

This was something that neither the Hounds nor the humans had ever known before. The humans whose Hounds had disappeared were, surprisingly, close friends. During the investigation, they confessed that one day, they had decided to step back from their usual exhausting routines and take a break to rest their tired and ruptured nerves.

All of a sudden, seven Hounds appeared and began whispering their usual slogans:

“Strong people don’t stop.”

“What if you get left behind?”

And their most favourite:

“You could be doing more.”

The humans became lost in their thoughts once again and decided to give up on their plan to rest. But then, suddenly, a voice echoed through the room:

“But we are more than what we produce.”

Everyone was shocked. For the very first time in the history of the Worthlands, a human had questioned a Hound. They noticed something strange. The Hound had become slightly smaller. Watching this whole scenario, another friend spoke in a low voice:

“Our worth needs no marks.”

The Hound became even smaller. And then, suddenly, it disappeared. The circle of friends had broken the code. They now understood the truth. The Hounds had been monitoring their thoughts all along.

Their only duty was to inspect and inject thoughts of guilt, productivity, and failure into human minds. If there were no negative and overpowering thoughts—thoughts that distorted the true meaning of productivity and merit—there would be no Hounds.

A flow of words that had the power to tear the Hounds apart began echoing through the room:

“Our worth needs no marks.”

“We are humans, not machines.”

“Rest is not rebellion.”

And many more.

One by one, they witnessed all seven Hounds disappear. The confession sparked a huge controversy across the Worthlands. Every human was now aware of their actual worth.

They finally realised that having a golden star beside their name could never be compared with the value of their health, their peace, and their well-being.

Days passed.

Then weeks.

And eventually, there was not a single Hound left in the Worthlands.

The Great 3Gs were no longer great.

The humans had thrown them out of the Worthlands with a huge catapult, sending them far beyond the reach of their planet. The Worthlands was finally ghost-free. And the humans gave their planet a new name:

Eudaimonia.

A life well lived.

Perhaps that was the greatest victory of all. They finally understood that they had never been machines in need of repair, nor workers in need of constant direction. They were simply human. And that had always been enough.

By: Laraib Zahra Sial

About the author: Author is a student of International Relations at Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab. It’s her first effort and she really is enthusiastic to do more.