Life's Lessons, Vol. 3

Here related is the story of the man and the fox:

"There was a man who had a grudge against a fox, for the fox had caused him some damage.  He managed to seize it, and in order to take his full revenge, he tied a rope which had been dipped in oil to his tail.  He set fire to the rope and let him go.  But, prompted by some god, the fox ran into the man's fields and set fire to all of his crops, as it was harvest time.  The man ran after him helplessly, lamenting his lost crops."

Our passions can be a good thing, if directed towards the Good (such as love).  Oftentimes, however, we fall prey to our passions.  The Farmer in this fable had indeed suffered injury from the fox, but it was his emotions that, clouding his rational judgement, caused him more damage.

But more importantly, this fable discusses the nature of justice.  While it is true that the Farmer deserved justice for his loss, the farmer went about enacting justice in the wrong way.  Justice clouded by emotion is revenge; it was revenge that the Farmer sought, not justice.  Ironically, he who could not properly enact justice was justly reciprocated.

In the post 9/11 era, it is important for us  to think about the nature of justice.  John Galt, a character in Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged", describes justice as:

"...the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake the character of men as you cannot fake the character of nature, that you must judge all men as conscientiously as you judge inanimate objects, with the same respect for truth, with the same incorruptible vision, by as pure and as rational a process of identification...that to place any other concern higher than justice is to devaluate your moral currency and defraud the good in favor of the evil..."

I will let Ayn Rand's words stand on their own as a testament to the importance of justice guided by reason.

-Jason Roberts

Comments

[Bryan]

Off topic:

The Eagle and the Arrow is a very apt fable to describe Western politics in the last decades.

[Jason Roberts]

Indeed it is! Thank you for reminding me.

I will use it for my next Life's Lesson ;).

[softwareNerd]

I don't read the moral of this fable as illustrating that revenge is wrong. I see it as an exhortation to think about the details of revenge and justice.

The implementation of justice must be wise and dispassionate.