Corporation
Once upon a time, there was a huge multinational corporation. (1)
Within this multinational corporation, there was an intelligent and skilled worker (2). He found his work, which mostly consisted of following the orders of the top boss (3), rather tedious. He had great ideas for improvement of the company, but the boss would never listen.
Not only would the boss not listen, he would sometimes get very angry, and yell at the worker. "Are you questioning my authority?", he would shout, "Shut up, and do as I say!" Needless to say, the worker didn't appreciate this treatment. One day, he disobeyed a direct order of the boss, convinced his own idea was better. Indeed, the workers under him were happier, at no extra cost to the company. The boss, however, found out.
"You disobey my direct orders?!" shouted the boss, angrily, "You're fired! Get out! OUT!"
The worker left, momentarily miserable, but before long he realised his new freedom. Perhaps he could set up his own company, and compete with the corporation.
And so he did. And at first, his company (4), flourished. He advertised it with images of happiness and love. The boss of the corporation saw this, and he didn't like it. He set about making counter-advertisements. Rather than advertising his own corporation, which, he knew, wasn't actually as *good* as the new company, he decided to advertise against the new company. So he put forth fliers, pamphlets, whole books saying how terrible the new company is. He told the consumers that it was a place of pain, misery and death.
The consumers were fooled by this - after all, everyone else was using the corporation and its product (5), and so many people surely couldn't be wrong? Especially when they won't let you use anything they make unless you, too, use the corporation's product (6). And so, for many years, the new company did poorly, while the corporation continued to flourish... (to be continued)
Before reading the footnotes, consider who is the 'bad guy' in the story, and who is the good guy.
(1) - Heaven, PLC. (or Microsoft)
(2) - Lucifer (or Linus Torvaldes)
(3) - God (or Bill Gates)
(4) - Hell, Inc. (or Linux (I know, not really a company))
(5) - The Bible (or Windows)
(6) - This situation is, of course, most based in Microsoft, but it also applies to medieval Christianity, where non-Christians were shunned (or killed).