Stop me if you've heard this one. The sun and the cloud were hanging out in the sky one day, discussing the political climates of the lands below and the fundamentals of governance, beginning with Machiavelli and ending with Hitler. The cloud was convinced that brute force was the only way to effectively rule people. The sun thought it might be better to rule with kindness.
There is, of course, no way to settle these sorts of debates short of trying it out. The cloud pointed at a man below and said, “I bet I can get that man to take off his coat quicker with brute force than you can with kindness.” The sun says, “You're on,” and hides behind a nearby mountain.
The cloud took aim and huffed and puffed and blew harder than a whore on crack. The man's jacket caught the wind and he flew backwards, found his footing, and wrapped his coat tightly around himself. So the wind blew harder, and the man wrapped tighter. The cloud got angrier, the man became more determined to hang on to his coat. Finally the cloud became a tornado and caught him up. The man's arms flung wildly as he whipped around in circles and the coat came off.
“There,” the cloud said, tossing the man onto a stack of hay and hiding behind the mountain. “Lets see you do better.” The man gathered up his coat and kept going. The sun came out, looked upon the man, and smiled. The man, wiping his brow, took off his jacket. The cloud frowned. “Well played, sun. Let's try another.”
Now, the cloud wasn't stupid. He knew the sun proved that it's easier to manipulate people with kindness. So he chose a challenge that required brutality. “I can put this man through more agony with brutality than you can with kindness.” The sun smiled. “You're on.”
The cloud hid. The man walked. The sun smiled. And smiled. The man smiled back. The sun smiled wider. The man wiped the sweat from his face and peeled off his clothes to cool down. He staggered. His lips cracked, skin boiled, melted and sloughed off his bones. He screamed until the sun sapped all the moisture from his vocal cords and they shriveled and died and the man screamed silently.
The cloud rushed out in a fit of mercy and struck the man down with a bolt of lightning, leaving a pile of ashes bearing an expression of befuddlement. The cloud whipped around to face the sun, who smiled. The cloud scoffed. “This doesn't mean you win. It takes more energy to smile than it does to just kick the shit out of someone.”
