The Acidic Venom of Scorn - No. 62. The Serpent and the File - The Essential Aesop™ - Back to Basics Abridgment Series

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. (Adopted by Steve Jobs.)

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A Serpent glided into an Blacksmith’s shop.

At once, he came upon a File on the floor which pricked his skin.

Furious, the Serpent opened his mouth and struck his fangs in attack, which, over and over, did no harm to heavy iron but only to itself.

Moral of the Story: It is particularly useless to scorn that which cannot perceive it. Hate is acid that corrodes the vessel that contains it. Hate is a man’s own best punishment.

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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue

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Why We Loved It: This fable builds on Self-Inflicted Misery – No. 61. The Bald Man and the Fly, with some notable distinction in casting.

The choice of Aesop’s casting can be subtle, but important.

For things such as scorn, there is the thing that scorns, and there is the thing that is scorned, being the object of the scorn.

In The Bald Man and the Fly, Aesop teaches with a human being—the Man—being the presumed height of a rational and potentially wise being, brought to the foolishness by the little Fly. Silly Man.

Here, Aesop uses his Serpent and a File. The Serpent is generally denoted as a naturally vicious character, and the File is not really even a character, as such, being inanimate. The File did not and could not “do anything wrong.” This fable does not begin with something good that goes bad because of the object of scorn, but, rather, something that is bad because its core nature keeps it that way, irrespective of the object.

So, we consider: Scorn for President Trump (“I scorn President Trump because he does not match my expectation.”), scorn for Joe Biden (“I scorn Joe Biden because he does not match my expectation.”), scorn for the dishwasher (“I scorn this dishwasher because it does not match my expectation.”), scorn for the automobile (“I scorn this automobile because it does not match my expectation”). In each case, the resultant scorn is a function of some antecedent judgment.

But, we note that the person who scorns bears the acidic venom of the scorn irrespective of whether the object of that scorn is living or not living. Scorn is a lien on human life, having some parts of frustration, hate, anger and similar vices. Aesop makes the object of the scorn immaterial, because, in effect, it does not matter what is being scorned, or whether the object is aware of the scorn for it. It only matters whether or why the thing that scorns does so. To be in a state of scorn by thoughtful control and free choice is rare if ever for the sage, but it is almost always because the thing that scorns is too weak to control it or too foolish to know it.

The retorting rhetorical Dukakian quip is whether a man would scorn the person who rapes his wife. The answer is “probably yes,” but that fact proves only human weakness, it does not prove human strength. Saying that a man will hate does not prove the wisdom of it. Gandhi, Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Socrates, were strong, and they were wise. With cause to be abrased, insulted and injured, all of these wise men—all of these exceptional men—were yet filled with love, not the venom of scorn.

This was the lesson of Nothing to Hate, But Hate Itself – Or, Hate Best Practices.

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