Monday, September 21, 2015

Proverb

Κόρακας κοράκου μάτι δε βγάζει. 
(Hawks will not pick out Hawk's eyes.)

As a insightful observation of nature that homogeneous birds do not fight one another, the apothegm from Greek Solomon merits attention, for it also refers to homo sapiens by implying that one’s friends and families ought to be his primary source of support. A beneficiary who maintains a tightly knitted social network or a victim who suffers from a fragmented family or fratricidal conflicts may give the words to lecture people about the importance of kin ties. Interestingly, this aphorism appears to be against traditional western individualism by advocating collectivism, which is featured in eastern culture, where individuals are mostly subjective to group direction and subjugate to group interests. Nevertheless, nobody wants to stay in a community of recrimination, where people plot against each other, believe in no one, and cudgel their brains to profit from others. Such community will extort a member’s energy, inundate his life with suspicion, and drag him into quagmire of loneliness and exhaustion. For example, in late 18th century, the cold-blooded prince of Indian Mughal Empire eliminated dozens of his brothers by poison, intrigue, and assassinations. With only servile admirers or bitter antagonists around him, he was eventually overthrown due to domestic conflicts. Consequently, the empire collapsed into revolts and beldams. Individualism has caused the downfall of many societies; however, collectivism has also proven to be detrimental in other cultures (e.g. developing countries in Asia). Conflicts between individualism and collectivism remains unsolved even given the former views.

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