Dear Friends,
It seems to me, nature abhors weakness, and will destroy the meek, so that the strong may live. Weakness comes in many colors, it can effect the body, the mind, the spirit, character or the will. All of which can only lead to catastrophe. The strong can sense weakness. This is why there are predators and prey. The weak are the prey and the strong are the predators. Strength is not necessarily in body, mind, spirit, character or will, but can be strength of convictions, especially when those convictions are evil. This truism cannot be denied. In the history of Earth, there have been more species gone extinct than live today, showing that weakness leads inevitably to extinction. Wealth, far from providing strength… is actually a good reason for the strong to prey on those who appear weak.
A honey bee nest that shares it’s wealth, honey, with the neighboring wasps and hornets will not last long. Sooner rather than later, the hornets will kill the bees to take all the wealth for themselves. The hornets know they do not have to make the honey… they can just steal it. Wasps will lay eggs in the stunned bodies of the bees, using their suffering, to bring in another generation of wasps, with which to tyrannize other bees. The great horded wealth of the bees is no protection, nor is their willingness to share that wealth, it is actually a source of threat. No matter how hard the bees work, no matter how patriotic to the queen, or how friendly to hornets, a beehive that allows invaders in… will die. That is why bee’s do not allow hornets or wasps in their hives. They are not that stupid.
Ancient Egypt took in the Hyksos, a Palestinian people who were fleeing persecution. The Egyptians fed and housed them, bestowing a great good on the Hyksos. The Hyksos however returned that good with evil. Within a century of being saved by the Egyptians, they turned on their benefactors and conquered them. The Egyptians suffered under Hyksos rule for awhile, until they rose up and dethroned the Hyksos, ejecting them. The Hyksos sensed weakness in their benefactors, but rather than help and be thankful, the Hyksos returned evil for good. It was not that the Hyksos were evil, but that they, as are all people, animals and plants… expansionist. The strong will take advantage of the weak at every turn. It is the nature of existence.
It is no different than when the Roman Camillus asked the Gaul king Brennus, why he laid siege to the Tuscan city of Clausium, and Brennus said, “We…are but obeying that most ancient of laws which gives to the stronger the goods of his weaker neighbors, the world over, beginning with God himself and ending with the beasts that perish. For these too are so endowed by nature that the stronger seeks to have more than the weaker.” Those who believe themselves strong will attack those they consider weak… even if it is not the case. As with the Gauls, they captured and burned Rome to the ground, yet in the end, were expelled into the wastes to die of starvation. From this example we can clearly see that the strong, even if strong in fantasy only, will invade those they consider weak.
This law of nature, that the strong should conquer the weak, finds the most fertile ground in the hearts of evil men. Beasts, who cannot reason and are subject only to their appetites, like evil men, hornets and wasps, will always take the easier path. That path is, theft rather than production, envy rather than diligence and profligacy rather than thrift. Good men then, must use our reason to never appear weak to those evil men, who would harm us and ours. Because even if they are strong in fantasy only, the suffering their attacks will cause, are all too real. Moreover, in the arena of war, due to the unknowable nature of battle…the strong do not always win. So, the wise then will not appear weak, or allow hornets into the nest, because no matter how much honey there is, the hornets will take it all.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
