Unparable

The world was coming to an end. The gilded emperor was raging. 'This is ridiculous!', he roared at noone in particular. 'We are humans! There is no technology that is beyond our scope, no aspect of nature we can't tame. Shall we let such a puny thing as the Eschaton come in our way? We must toil ceaslessly to find a way of stopping this madness!'

The silver emperor was more laid-back. 'Relax', he said to his colleague. 'Chill! Smoke a joint! The world is ending, and there's nothing we can do about it. Might as well learn to enjoy it.'

The gilded emperor mobilized his vast empire. Every man, woman and child worked like an ant to stop the Eschaton. The silver emperor, on the other hand, did nothing. He just chilled on the balcony of his palace, sipping gin&tonic and letting one of his favourite concubines give him a back-rub.

In the end, both died. Of course they did. It was the end of the world. You can't stop the end of the world, silly!

Now, you might think the moral of this story is "Hard work doesn't pay off. Don't try to change your situation, it won't do you no good!". If you do, you're stupid. This story has no moral. It's a historical account, not some fable, you moron!