Written by William Scoble   

UNEQUAL ANIMALS

“Nature is red in tooth and claw,” said Tennyson, and who would argue? We know which animals have the tooth and the claw, and which furnish their blood, however unwillingly. But this post is only metaphorically about animals, of course, though the metaphor is stunningly apposite.

We have seen too many discouraging, infuriating headlines like this:

“So and so pleads guilty to such and such criminal behavior, escapes with
a slap on the wrist, no jail time.”

Be it mishandling classified information, giving government secrets to one’s lover, brazenly admitting to torture, lying to a Senate committee, carpet bombing whole countries, deceiving the country into war, falsifying tax returns for years, rape of one’s 3-yr old daughter, drunk driving… you get the pattern: All guilty in the public mind, but rarely brought to trial. Those few who are brought to trial are exonerated. All here, thinly disguised, had one thing in common: POWER - either political power - or the power that attaches to wealth and fame.

At the other end of the spectrum… the truth tellers, those for whom revealing a crime is - apparently, amazingly - considered a greater offense than the crime itself. These are the people like Manning and Kiriakou and Snowden and Drake and Edmonds and Sterling and many more - who lose their jobs or are exiled or go to prison - or all of the above. They, too, have something in common: little power, little wealth, little fame. Correction: they had little fame; now they are notorious or heroic, depending on your politics.

If you think that the naming of names in the second category and not in the first is an oversight - it is not. No one dares speak truth to power, lest the might of the state descend upon them. Those in the first group are shameless; those in the second have been shamed by the system. Check that: the system has tried to shame them, but we don’t buy a word of it.
We know that, since time immemorial, the criminal powerful have escaped the consequences of their misdeeds, while the honorable powerless have been crushed. It hath ever been thus. We grow weary with the ancient banality of it all.

Here now in a free translation is a fable for our times, 350 years old, but as necessary, as topical today as it was in 17th century France:

Les Animaux Malades de la Peste
by Jean de la Fontaine.

A malady that brings terror
An evil that Heaven, in its wrath,
Created to punish the crimes of the earth -
The Plague, truth to say,
Could fill hell in a day -
Had declared war on the animals.
Not all were dying, though all were stricken.
None tried to save their ebbing lives.
No delicacies whetted their appetites;
Neither wolf nor fox lay
In wait for the sweet, innocent prey.
See the turtledoves leaving!
No more joy - nought but grieving.

The Lion held council, and said: “My dear friends
I believe that Heaven has decreed
This misfortune for our sinful deeds.
May the most guilty among us appease
These signs of celestial ire -
Perhaps he may obtain a merciful cure.
History shows that in these situations
One makes such devotions.
Let’s not flatter ourselves, but without self-indulgence
Look at the state of our conscience.

As for me… satisfying my gluttonous appetite,
I’ve devoured whole flocks of sheep.
No wrong had they done me, so I had no right.
Why - even the shepherd oft fell to my teeth.
If need be then, I’ll sacrifice my-self
But it is only meet that each accuse him-self.
For one must wish, in all justice,
That the most guilty perish.

“Sire”, said the Fox, “you are too good a King,
And your scruples show far too much self-disapproving.
What! Eating sheep! - rabble, stupid breed.
Is that a sin? No, Sire, no! You did them, my King,
Great honor in their devouring.
And as for the shepherd, it has to be said
He deserved to be dead, as do all
Who become so big in the head.

So spoke the Fox - and hear flatterers applaud.
One dared not examine
All those who maraud —
The Tiger, the Bear - all the great powers,
Including the Mastiff - the querulous beasts
Were according to all, guilty not in the least.

Comes now the donkey, humbly to say:
“I recall once, in a field full of hay
Belonging to friars,
The moment, my hunger - and sinful desires
(And behind me some devil )
I stole of the grass barely a mouthful.
I had no right to it - that’s the plain truth of it.”

Whereupon they all shouted: “Down with the ass!”
A lawyerly wolf soon proved by his prose
This cursèd animal just had to go -
This hairless, this scabrous, this source of their woes.
His misdeed was judged a hangable case
Eating grass not one’s own! An offense so base!
Nothing but death could atone for his sin.
Which they soon made perfectly clear to him.

Be your station in life one of misery or might
The courts’ judgements will find you… black or white.

As La Fontaine probably said: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

And, of course, some things never change, they stay mostly the same. Just ask the unequal animals.

Here endeth the Lesson.