I went to sleep with this story buzzing round my head last night. I think it was the back-stabbing of Jeremy Corbyn that sparked it off. I determined to remember it when I woke.

I woke up and it was still there.

A short story – How David Crumb almost saved the world!

There should be statues of David Crumb all over the world. He should be the most famous and celebrated human being who has ever lived.

Instead he is reviled.

David Crumb came up with the greatest invention there has ever been. It would have transformed human existence and saved the planet from ruin – if he had not made one crucial mistake.

David Crumb was a scientist, not a politician. He was simply too naïve.

It all began when David was a young research psychologist. He chose to study how the human brain worked. Being exceptionally gifted he soon made use of the latest three-dimensional imaging systems using magnetic pulses to study a variety of living people and determine exactly how their minds operated. His research papers were well received and he was able to attract government funding to take his research further.

David was particularly interested in what made individuals behave in a violent, intolerant and selfish manner. David focused his work on hardened criminals who displayed these dispositions to a greater extent than other people.

The government thought this was an area that was of interest to them and provided David with both the facilities and access to the subjects required – prisoners from the local jail.

Very early in his work David had identified two regions of the brain rich in neuronal networks which seemed to be responsible for these negative attributes. When comparing different segments of the population he found that there was a range in size and complexity of these areas between individuals and the violent criminals he had been studying had greatly enlarged centres.

David began piecing together a theory concerning how these regions of the brain might be responsible for creating the negative actions. He found that caring people, who felt compassion, love and empathy to a higher level than most, had much smaller neuronal networks and activity in these areas.

For these observations David Crumb was led to the conclusion that altruism was hardwired.

He named these discrete brain centres ‘The Nyx Centres’ after the Greek Goddess of the night who spawned dark spirits.

That was interesting but unremarkable. Many areas of the brain had been mapped. It would not be unusual to find that there were regions responsible for negative attitudes. If it had stopped there David Crumb would have been of note in psychology circles but the matter would have gone no further. But David had other ideas. He set about seeing if he could affect the operation of those Nyx Centres. After many years of treatments with various drugs, with absolutely no success, he stumbled upon a discovery that would impact on the whole world. Although not quite in the way he had imagined.

David Crumb’s laudable dream was to control the Nyx Centres so that their negative influence was annulled. He believed he could put an end to all violence, greed and selfishness if he could only eradicate the effects of these centres. He could alter human behaviour and create a kind, harmonious, happy world.

It was quite a dream.

Nobody believed him. All the government wanted was to control violence but they not think it was possible. They thought that his research was interesting enough to fund, but they did not really believe he would achieve anything.

David did.

On this occasion David found himself on his own in the laboratory.  The technician who normally operated the magnificent new magnetic imaging machine he had been equipped with, was ill. David was free to play about with the machine and in the course of that he discovered that he was able to adjust the type of magnetic pulse being directed at the subject’s brain. The technician normally operated the machine purely to achieve the best images and had never sought to vary anything, but David, being a scientist, was curious to see what the effects of altering the pulses might be.

As with a lot of scientific breakthrough it was a combination of serendipity and observation. The opportunity had arisen and curiosity had prevailed. The effects were not at first greatly apparent. A less observant scientist might not have noticed, but David Crumb did. At a certain combination of magnetic pulses he observed that the Nyx Centres became extremely over-excited. He recorded this phenomenon in his extensive notes. It was certainly worthy of consideration.

The criminal concerned was a particularly unpleasant character who was a homicidal maniac and sadist. David Crumb had special permission to study such individuals. The criminal’s Nyx Centres were highly developed as one might imagine given his violent disposition so the activity was quite pronounced, enough so that he was able to observe the phenomenon.

The second observation that David Crumb made was of even greater interest. Following the exposure to the magnetic pulses the burst of activity in the Nyx Centres then dropped right off and the centres went completely quiet.

David recorded that too. It was one of those eureka moments.

That was only the beginning.

Following this success David Crumb repeated the experiment on other subjects with the same result. He was elated. He knew that he had discovered his Holy Grail and that he had found something that directly impacted on the specialised areas responsible for violent behaviour.

His follow-up work on a number of criminal subjects was even more startling. It showed that following the treatment with the magnetic pulse, the centres remained dormant, their blood supply and neuronal complexity began to reduce substantially and the centres actually shrank and disappeared. The prison officers reported marked changes in personality in the subjects concerned. They had transformed from being  surly and aggressive to friendly, pleasant and helpful.

People in high places started talking about David’s work.

David was incredibly excited about his success and began working on a smaller hand-held device that could deliver the exact magnetic pulse desired.

As to how it operated; that remained a bit of a mystery. Not that the authorities cared. All there were interested in was the effect. They pressed him to develop a portable device.

That was not too difficult for David. Soon he had a prototype. It was small enough to be hand-held and effective over a large range. It even penetrated most materials.

In a moment of euphoria David named it his ‘Love Gun’.

He had a vision that he could use this ‘weapon’ against belligerent individuals and transform the world.

The government took his prototype and began producing a number of them with a view to trialing it in the field.

The first application was in Kenya where the weapon was deployed in their fight against poachers. Gangs of such poachers were systematically destroying the last of the wild-life.  These gangs were ruthless and extremely dangerous. Hundreds of wardens had been murdered. There was big money to be made in the poaching trade. As the wildlife became rarer the price had shot up. It attracted in some of the worst type of individual; the most heartless, cruel and mercenary. Soon there would be no wild-life left. There was a war going on. The Kenyan government was desperate. The tourist trade was a cornerstone of their economy. Without the wildlife they would be in trouble.

The British authorities saw an opportunity and offered to step in to try out their new weapon. It was an ideal testing ground as far as they were concerned.

David Crumb equipped the game wardens with his devices. Nobody could quite believe the dramatic results. The wardens directed the beams at poachers they encountered with amazing results. The poachers were soon transformed from callous, cruel hunters, intent on butchering animals for their own profit and killing anyone who got in their way, to caring individuals who became distraught at the suffering they had created.

Following this success, David was propositioned by prison governors all over the world and carried out experiments on inmates with the same dramatic effects. The most evil characters were completely reformed.

David was next propositioned by the army. He worked with them to produce a much more powerful model that operated at a great range.  The Generals met to discuss how to trial this new weapon.

Around the world there was a relentless war being fought with the religious fanatics of fundamental beliefs whose intolerance and sadistic practices were horrific. They were considered the ideal target.

The ‘weapon’ proved completely effective. The previous intolerant, barbaric jihadists developed compassion, love and empathy, downed their weapons and embraced their victims as brothers and sisters. The savage killing and raping came to an abrupt halt.

Everything that David Crumb had wished for had come to pass. The world teetered on the brink of a new, most wonderful era. It seemed that David’s invention would be put to good use to remove the evil of war, brutality, greed and selfishness from the planet. The relentless destruction of the natural world might be halted. Conflict would be a thing of the past. Poverty might be vanquished.

It was surely the dawn of a harmonious paradise on earth.

The results were so incredible that the Prime Minister called him in to a special meeting at Number 10. David proudly took his invention to show it off. That’s when it went wrong.

If he had only known – with one pull of the trigger David could have changed the course of history ……… but he didn’t.  Instead he presented his weapon into the hands of the Prime Minister.

George Maverick was a genial, pleasant man, well used to dealing with the media. He was a seasoned politician. You did not get to the top in his trade without being skillful at manipulating, wrong-footing, conniving, back-stabbing and deploying chicanery. Behind the congenial physiognomy lurked a shrewd mind and lust for power. He had already ascertained the potential of David’s gun.

Within months George Maverick had mass produced the ‘Love Guns’ deployed them with his army and used them on all his enemies. His enemies included his fellow politicians of all parties, the entire population of the country and then the rest of the world – every single person.

Nobody was immune.

It took a remarkable short period of time for George Maverick to conquer the whole planet and set himself up as the first global tyrant – the only person who had not been subjected to the transformational rays.

Every tyrant judges their own power by what they are able to impose on those around them. George lived in opulence behind magnetically opaque plastic walls designed to nullify the effects of any rays from a stray love gun – not that any of his subjects harboured anything other than loving thoughts towards him. His subjects toiled and suffered greatly. He loved to watch their misery, it made him feel so good. He was in complete control and exerted that control over the masses. What could possibly be better?

George Maverick, like most of our leaders throughout history, had highly developed Nix Centres. If you measured brains on that alone – he was a genius.

David’s mistake was to trust a politician. He should have known that all they were interested in was power.