The scorpion’s tale |
SOME parables contain so much truth that they occur spontaneously across geographic and temporal divides. Take the parable of the scorpion and the frog — variously known as the tale of the scorpion and the tortoise, and even of the farmer and the viper. Its message is that one cannot escape one’s nature and it would be foolish to listen to the blandishments of a creature whose nature demands that it kills even if it dooms itself in the process. It’s the same with Israel; no matter how evident it is that its bloodthirsty ways are leading to its doom, it cannot change its ways because it is not in its nature to do so. Were it to do so, it would no longer be Israel.
It’s not entirely Israel’s fault: imagine that in your neighbourhood there lives a child whose every misdeed is excused, whose every act of budding psychopathy is swept under the rug. A child who, despite his predilection for torturing animals, is not only shielded from all consequences but is told that he is the brightest and most righteous child in the world and that the kittens he routinely murders did something to deserve it. Eventually, he’ll believe it and grow up to be a cruel, deranged, utterly entitled and narcissistic adult.
There’s a trait that all narcissists........