Are You Conforming To Diversity?

In an old fable about a scorpion and a frog, the scorpion wants to cross the river, but the frog refuses at first to carry him.

“You are a scorpion,” the frog says. “You would sting me.”

“Why would I?” the scorpion answers. “If I did, we would both drown.”

So the frog agrees to carry the scorpion across. The scorpion hops on the frog’s back, and when they reach the middle of the river, the scorpion stings the frog.

The frog succumbs to the venom and both are sinking in the river.

“But why?” asks the frog.

“I couldn’t help myself,” the scorpion answers. “I am a scorpion, after all.”

(Remember “The Gingerbread Man”? I think when the fox agrees to carry the Gingerbread Man across the river and then eats him, this is merely revenge of the Carrier Union for what the Passenger Class did to the frog. And still, what did we expect? Foxes are foxes, after all.)

All JEWS. ALL MUSLIMS. ALL CATHOLICS, CHRISTIANS, GAYS, STRAIGHTS, MEN, WOMEN, REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS, CHILDREN, SENIORS, AMERICANS, MEXICANS, INDIANS, RUSSIANS, AUSTRALIANS, CONSERVATIVES, LIBERALS, DWARVES, ELVES, GIANTS, BLACKS, WHITES, YELLOWS, REDS, BROWNS, GREENS, GRAYS (let’s not leave aliens out of this) – EVERYONE IN EVERY GROUP KNOWS EXACTLY HOW THOSE OTHER GROUPS ARE.

Are we really that trapped by WHAT we are? Defined by what GROUP we belong to? Both the frog AND the scorpion have an expectation of the scorpion’s behavior, as if to say “EVERYONE knows that ALL scorpions are THAT WAY. The frog ASSUMES it, but worst of all, the scorpion CONFORMS to it, as if the group is all he can be.
 YOU can be more than the stereotypes YOU and OTHERS try to label you with.
A true sense of the diversity of humanity isn’t about understanding various cultures – it means knowing how to treat EACH PERSON as a diverse, unique INDIVIDUAL. It also means thinking of YOURSELF as an INDIVIDUAL, not a PART of some monolithic group who MUST adhere to that group’s labels and thinking.
Don’t be a cog in any machine, or a slave to any group. Don’t conform - BE YOURSELF.
Just saying….

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