"We'll talk to the lighting bolt"

Once upon a time, it came to be that a couple of particularly sharp fellows realized that lightning bolts, as scary as they were, didn't actually have a mind of their own.

Fascinated though, they observed that the rest of the tribe couldn't give up fast enough their fattest livestock or their most desirable maiden to try and placate "the powers that be".

"We'll talk to the lighting bolt". Solemnly they announced. And they did. And they have, and they still do, and since then they've ruled the terrified and the desperate, the weak and the sad, who flock to them in steady numbers, those who yearn for a word of hope, those unable to rule themselves, those still afraid of the lightning bolt...