There was once a king who seduced the beautiful wife of his own general and had him killed by "accident" in a battle.
His old mentor knew about it and one fine day asked him: "O wise king, how would you judge a rich man who stole a poor man's farm because he liked the apple tree in the man's garden? He also plotted to have the man arrested and die in prison.
The king got up in a rage and said "I would have that scoundrel hanged. Where is he? Bring him to me!"
The mentor changed his expression and said sternly," God told me that man is none other than you. You stole an innocent man's wife and had him killed. You shall pay a dear price as you yourself have passed judgement on this matter."
The king was shocked and on that very night, his only child died. He tore his clothes and collapsed in grief. That king was king David, a good hearted and wise king who truly repented of his sin.
Among lesser kings, they would have the mentor imprisoned or banished for speaking out.
In the same way, we, citizens of the world, faced with the tragedy and daily threat of the coronavirus, can apply the same test on two powerful kings: the Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
Let us put these two men in front of world television and, on the pretext of interviewing their life philosophy, suddenly ask this question out of the blue:
"Assuming your officers have found the criminal who leaked the bat virus to kill thousands worldwide, what would you personally do to that man or woman?"
Now listen to each of their replies carefully and watch how each of them respond when caught off guard.
President Trump replies without skipping a beat:
"When I find the son of a #%@ I would personally feed him to the lions.....you ll need many law enforcers to restrain me from getting him."
President Xi, also without much hesitation, says:
"First, I would make sure he is indeed the criminal. He'll have to confess to the world what, why and how he did this awful thing.
Then I would send him to be charged in the international tribunal in cooperation with other affected governments.
Finally, China will take measures to prevent this type of people from plotting and endangering our peaceful society. "
What a contrast between the two characters: one an intuitive extrovert and the other a rational introvert. But personalities rarely reveal a person's ethics except under tremendous pressure.
So there you have the riddle 50% solved by their very words. After listening to their voices and looking deep into their faces, you may probably, with luck and without a lie detector, solve the other half of the mystery.
Now we must keep in mind, that while King David was a man of passion who really fell in love with Bathsheba (the woman he seduced and later married), the two modern day kings are presently leaders of the world's two largest nations.
And in a geopolitical contest to be top superpower, they would not hesitate to try all ways to beat the other nation into a weaker place.
So while the world is just starting to breath a sigh of relief that the worst of the pandemic may be over, we will have to deal with the after-effects of economic costs in terms of unemployment and recessions for the next six months at least.
But the underlying mystery remains with conspiracy theories ranging from complex geopolitical schemes to simple cover up. Yet, the blame game between the two nations currently at play seems a futile exercise.
There may never be any hard evidence as the masterminds would have wiped away all traces. (Hard evidence will be tough to find and may take years like the JFK murder or 9/11).
So in this existential dilemma, the only true test is one of human behavioural analysis with a thought experiment.
No comments:
Post a Comment