We all know about Aesop’s Fables. The folk tales told by Aesop, a Greek slave in the pre-Christian era, and much later re-told to propagate Christian morality to all.
Recently, I came across a beautiful Aesop’s story about an ass and his dissatisfied life. The story goes like this.
The Story - The Ass and His Masters
This ass was highly dissatisfied with his life. His master is a herb farmer. Though the ass does not have to carry any heavy loads, yet he is not satisfied. His master would not provide enough food for the ass, and the ass is perpetually hungry. Hence the dissatisfaction.
So, he goes to God to complain. God listens to him patiently and is sorry for him. God asks the ass what he wants.
The ass replies that he wanted to be owned by someone who would feed him well, and he should never be hungry.
So God grants him his wish.
The next day the herb farmer sells the ass to a bricklayer.
Now the ass is forced to carry heavy loads on his back the whole day around. By the end of the day, the ass is exhausted. He could not even sleep in peace at night due to his back pain.
But now, he never remains hungry. The bricklayer is very generous and would feed the ass well and ensures that the ass never goes hungry.
Yet the ass remains unhappy as now he has to carry heavy loads on his back the whole day, though he is now not hungry anymore.
So, again he decides to go to God.
But this time the God is unhappy and impatient with him. He angrily says, “Be sure what you want in life. This thing cannot go on forever. I cannot solve your problems every time you are unhappy with your situation in life. I’ll grant you a wish for the last time. What do you want?”
The ass states his problem and says that he wants to change his master again. This time he wants a master who would feed him well. And also, the master would not put heavy loads on his back from dawn to dusk.
So, the next day the bricklayer sells the ass to a tanner. The tanner would feed the ass well to fatten him up so that he can kill the ass for his meat and use the skin to make sandals to sell in the market.
Even in death, he has to serve. That’s his lot. That’s his fate.
The moral of the story?
He who finds discontentment in one place is unlikely to find happiness in another.
What is wrong with the story
The story made me think.
Why is the story so regressive and fatalistic? Why does the story teach one to accept his station in life as fate? Why does it say that whatever one does, one cannot change one’s nemesis?
At the time Aesop wrote his stories, slavery was normal. Aesop himself was a slave. Much later, even the Church used to own slaves.
The slave owners used to say these stories to the slaves. No matter however hard the slaves try to improve their situation in life, it is beyond them to improve it. It is futile to try and escape from the situation.
One’s life is sealed depending upon his situation at birth. If one is born with privileges, life will offer him many opportunities. If otherwise, life is doomed and need to be justified invoking fate.
Has the situation changed now?
Happiness is mostly a personal mental state. It may be elusive to some, irrespective of his conditions in life. Yet why should society’s callousness and apathy towards individual plights be so shamefully justified?
Surprisingly, this thought process persists even now. We keep on telling and believing similar stories to keep our sanctity and ignore society’s unjustified behaviour towards the less privileged.
We readily accept fate for situations in which we do not have direct control. The same is true for also unhappy situations in life. From an individual’s point of view, this may be a good strategy. At least, with this attitude towards life, an individual can keep his sanity intact. It may help him to cope up with situations beyond his control.
Yet, if society uses this attitude to justify the wrongs done to an individual, it is nothing less than evil. And this evil is perpetuating from the beginning of civilization. We were told and taught to believe and accept a concept called fate. To justify the wrongs done to the less privileged of the society we are practicing and propagating this thought and attitude.
Even when we talk of the advancement of education, especially scientific education, we still teach and believe in fate and similar sentiments to our children.
Why is it so? Why should it be so?
Is it because we do not want to change the status quo?
Is it because we do not want the less privileged of the world to question those who are enjoying more at the cost of less privileged?
Also, why is it, whenever one gets a wrong hand in the roulette game of life, it is blamed on fate?
But, when one is successful beyond a reasonable state, the mention of fate never comes into play. We consider success mostly to be his efforts, his genius, his brilliance, his farsightedness that helped him to succeed. Even we underplay the head start of his coming from an advantaged position of society.
Of course, there are a lot of things that are beyond the immediate understandings of an individual. One’s action not always decides one’s life. The action of others, on which one has no control, also decide things in one’s life.
What society thinks as a group is important to determine the lives of those who are in a disadvantaged situation. Given proper opportunities, the less privileged can better their situations in life, and there may not be a requirement to invoke fate.
Now slaving is no longer practiced. At least it is illegal in all societies and countries. Yet the condition of the people from the less advantaged position of the society has not improved much. Fate needs to be invoked to justify their situations in life. And we as a society are not doing enough to change the situation. We still teach these stories lest they ask for their pound of flesh.
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