Can a virtuous Christian (believing, disciplined in action) ever be anything but a delta vis a vis God? It seems SSH rank is established by society, yet God for His own purposes might override (or use) the social milieu's judgment to thrust a man into a mission made possible by grace. Was Moses an Alpha or a Gamma thrust into a mission with divine aid?
>Whereas a Sigma will likely struggle with indifference and narcissism, the Alpha will struggle with his appetites and his pride. The Bravo with pettiness and cruelty, the Delta with taking responsibility, the Gamma with dishonesty and malice, the Omega with apathy and despair.
This is good. Such an accurate and concise portrait of the different phenotypes.
It's worth adding, for the third time, that St. Augustine was most likely a gamma and still a saint. Whereas there surely are several unrepentant sinners who are sigmas or alphas. Consider that for a moment before pretending to be something you're not.
There are way too many people that equate sigma/alpha = good and gamma = evil. Not so. Gammas may be annoying as hell, but evil is an entirely different thing. I'd say a post about a good role in society a gamma may shine on would be welcome.
Agreed. My two cents. Put gammas in charge of things, not people. My company just switched a gamma from a role of producing professional documents to enforcing compliance to said documents. Went from good to go to dumpster fire.
Is there any difference between low status and high status narcissism? I see Vox associate Sigma with some level of narcissism but am not sure how this is expressed.
A Gamma will offer justifications as to why he was doing things that are not his job instead of what he's supposed to be doing. A Gamma will engage in any task he is not expressly prohibited from doing.
An Omega will give excuses for why he couldn't complete his tasks. These will typically be things are not all that insurmountable to any other SSH rank. An Omega will not complete any task that he has incomplete knowledge of.
This is a bit of a tough question to answer but I believe it is Gammas try to get someone else to do the thing for them while Omegas will just abandon whatever the responsibility is completely. Gammas by virtue of being in the hierarchy have a reason to make it seem like they are doing their job, Omegas much less so.
This remains THE one central Truth of our collective material human existence/experience in this earthly realm. Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the one and only begotten son of God and no person will ever come into the presence of the perfect Creator of the Universe except through Jesus Christ. Thank You for this post, Vox.
All Earthly Glory is various forms of Refraction of the Heavenly Glory of God.
All our Glory is ultimately borrowed and given by him. The best as Saints we can aspire to is to be God's Bravo. The Right-Hand Man of Jesus Christ as much as possible.
In the past I appreciated being able to view the world through different religious and philosophical lenses, but recently it seems that the choices are collapsing into just two: traditional Christianity and the worship of evil and perversion. I regret this change, but If I'm forced to choose between only two; then that's a really easy decision.
There was a little mouse who was very much concerned about himself and his. One day, looking about his little mouse home, a nice enough place, he thought that he could do with a little bit of mouse success, but what was success?
He knew how to get the farmers grain, to get a little mouse wife and have little mouse children, but he thought it prudent to ask successful animals about their success, perhaps he could apply it in his own little mousey life.
First, he thought to visit the lion and his mighty pride. A glamorous handsome beast was this animal, surrounded by lionesses each more svelte than the last.
"Oh mighty Lion, spare this little mouse and grace him with an answer, what is success?"
Cracking open a eye, the lion was in a good mood, since no rivals had appeared for some time, and his stomach was full. He decided to humor the little mouse.
"Look at all around you, I am King of these plains, and my women hunt to fill my belly, I tell you little mouse, it is good to be the King, to rest full and pleased. All my desires are sated each day, can you claim the same little mouse? Best you become a little mouse king, with all the little mouse ladies waiting paw and whiskers on you!"
Saying that, he intended to rest once more, but another lion and came, threatening to take his women and kill his children, and the mouse watched in terror and awe as a fierce fight ensued, he fled before the victor was determined.
Next, when his little heart had stopped beating so very fast, the mouse sought the council of wolves. His timing was not the greatest as the wolves were at dinner. Nervously the mouse looked at steaming dead deer, but still he asked in squeaking voice;
"Noble wolves, fine hunters, spare this mouse and grace him with an answer what is success?"
The leader of the wolves didn't deign to answer, focused as he was on keeping order, watching the other wolves eat their rightful share, but one wolf barked a laugh and towered before the mouse.
"Look at our pack little mouse, see how good it is under the order of a wise leader! What a joy it is to work under him! To execute his will and together with fine comrades hunt prey! You would do well little mouse, to find a wise mouse king and serve him well, so well you'll be served!"
Having said his piece, it was going to be this wolf's turn to eat, but one of the lower ranked wolves, perhaps he was chancing it, or his paws slipped, but he looked to be closer to the dinner deer, than the wolf who spoke.
"Not your turn! Not your turn! Obey the leader's rules!"
The little mouse fled as one wolf was brutally savaged by another.
Now, the little mouse was weary of apex predators and thus sought the council of more sedate animals, that was how he found himself in company of the dutiful beaver amid heavy rain. Standing on no ceremony, he squeaked plainly.
"Ho good beaver, you're always ready to help a fellow out, tell this mouse, what is success?"
The beaver paused in lugging a sturdy branch, confused.
"Success? Have a look at our dam!"
The mouse did so, it was very nice.
"Nice innit?"
It was.
"Job's good, life's good, what more does a beaver need? Find yourself some work little mouse, and stick to it! Don't worry about success!"
Having said that, the beaver took his branch and shoved it into the dam, but as he did so, the rain had made the river mightier than the dam, and with an appalling crack, the work of the beavers was undone and they swam about in dismay like headless water fowl. It would take some time for the beavers to work once more. The little mouse left, more than a little disheartened.
As the little mouse wandered confused through the woods, he was accosted by a figure only a little larger than himself.
A fat rat, short and small among rats, but fat still.
"I've heard you've been talking to successful animals, I'm something of a successful animal myself, always have been!"
"Ok" muttered the mouse, continuing on his way.
The rat followed, yattering on.
"Those lions and wolves are fools struggling in life and death, and the beaver? Working? What sort of idiot works! They wish they could be as successful as I am!"
"I'm sure they do" the mouse murmured, picking up the pace.
Still the rat, huffing and puffing followed.
"You can only wish to be like me, but even if you're small, short and scrawny under my tutelage you could make it big kid!"
"I'm fine thanks!"
The fat rat reared up and hissed.
"Just like the others, you think you're too good huh? Here I am, trying to help kin! I'll show you!"
For as fat as the rat was, it wasn't easy fleeing from the wrathful rodent.
Head spinning, the mouse was resting before a deep dark den, he didn't like the look of it, but he was too tired after his flight to move. He did however hear heavy breathing coming from the den.
"W-who's there!" He called out.
"N-nobody and i-if there was, it'd be a bony someone with no meat, so you'd best not come inside, please!"
A strange notion took the mouse then, and he spoke with might unfamiliar to him.
"If you don't want me coming in and gobbling you up, you'd best answer my question! What is success!"
"Cruel! Cruel! Cruel! You intend to eat me, there's no such thing as success! To ask such a thing! Don't eat me!"
After much begging and pleading, the den dweller saw that nobody had come in to eat him.
"You aren't hungry right now? Well I guess you're saving me for later. I don't believe in success, but if you're talking survival, the raccoon will outlast us all"
Having his little breath back, and finding the den dweller disturbing, the mouse went one, seeking out the raccoon. He found many woodland animals knew of him, but neither hide nor tail could he find of this creature.
Finally after a lot of trouble, he found the raccoon messing about with some rocks.
"Ho..."
The mouse began his spiel, but the raccoon ignored him completely as if the mouse was air. The little mouse tried to make sense of what the raccoon was doing, but couldn't understand. He tried to talk to him, but the raccoon gave a glance that silenced the little mouse like magic. In the end the raccoon finished whatever he was doing with the rocks and left.
Three more times the mouse sought out the raccoon, each time finding the animal engaged in some obscure doing, except that time he found the raccoon with a lady raccoon. The mouse had left quickly of his own accord then.
Finally, one more time the mouse found the raccoon hanging from a branch over a sheer cliff.
"I beg you, tell me what success is and I'll leave you alone!"
Finding the mouse a hindrance to the enjoyment of the life risking breathtaking view, the raccoon finally answered.
"Just do as you please, why worry so much about success?"
The mouse could not reply for at that moment, the branch the raccoon was dangling from snapped, and the raccoon plummeted to his death, but the mouse was most taken with how the raccoon had laughed all the way to the bottom.
Perhaps more confused than when he began, grain and mouse wife far from his mind, the little mouse decided to ask the oldest tree in the wood what success is.
A massive gnarled oak, ancient in years, the little mouse had a very hard time climbing up this venerable elder, still he managed and asked.
"O great tree who has witnessed many seasons, what is success?"
A grand creaking and shuddering accompanied the voice of the elder tree.
"That any of you creatures can speak of success is a mystery, all of you die, but..."
The mouse heard no more, for reminded of the things he had seen, and the shadow of death, he heard not the following words from the tree.
Blindly the little mouse wandered into the misty bog. Lost and terrified, and terrified further that he was in the deadly misty bog, the mouse tried to find his way back out.
It was then that he encountered a stranger in the fog. He couldn't see the form of this being, but he had hypnotic eyes and a pleasing hiss.
"Poor little mouse, all alone in the bog, what brings you here?"
The mouse told his tale, of seeking success and finding death.
"If you trust me, climb into my mouth, and I'll bring you far away from here, to a land of success where nobody ever dies!"
The mouse was greatly tempted, but just as he was about to climb on forked tongue, a chilling hoot called out.
An impact, and the snake lay dead before the mouse. Fog clearing from his little head, the mouse's little heart almost stopped.
"Be not afraid" said the owl, tearing into snake flesh.
"This day I feast on snake and you are spared"
Summoning up his courage.
"Great terror of the sky, spare this mouse and grace him with an answer what is success?"
A hooting laugh, for the owl was blessed with knowledge and his eyes piercing the mouse knew what he had seen and heard.
"Had you stayed to listen to the tree you would know, instead you fled in fear with only the Truth of Death. If you would be more than meal for worms, seek the Lord of the Forest!"
With that, the owl flew away with the rest of the snake.
The poor little mouse was still lost in the Misty Bog, possessing no success and the Truth of Death.
However this tale is now much longer than the mouse's tail, so how he escaped is a story for another time...
This was such a great story! It puts the SSH into such a perspective that makes it extremely easy to understand. Reminds me of the Chronicles of Narnia. And Animal Farm, too.
Now turn it into a picture of book and take my money.
I agree with what Julie C observes, it's just the right amount of cruelty. Perhaps using particularly beautiful art to offset the animals' fate to the reality of the world around them, would inhance the story.
Also, I live the visual of a racoon laughing while falling to his death.
This teller can amatuerly sculpt, but pictures are a bit of a stretch, that said, a wrangler of image generators could solve that issue. Something similar to the art in the beatrix potter books would be nice, perhaps a little softer, as you said to ofset the grim reality.
While being as reckless and indifferent as the raccoon is questionable, to be able to face death laughing beats a lot of ways to die.
I love how you had the beaver speak; the "innit" in there just immediately gave him a flavor of character that made me think of a near-cockney version of one of Lewis' beavers.
Well done, the beginning parts of the story reminded a bit of the story of the Sword of Damocles.
Almost had the mouse invited in for tea, but that would have been a bit cheery for a tale with the focus it had.
Gotta do a tea party, last time this teller wrote a tea party it was a bunch of vampires discussing a hot new cult, which was fun but not cheery. A more cheerful party with fancy animals would be nice.
Can even tie it into the hierarchy without it being as cruel a tale.
In this instance, I think the cruelty is part of what makes it resonate. Human nature, in its way, is just as red in tooth and claw as that of the beasts of the field.
I'm reminded of a natural history book ("Wild Animals I Have Known" by Ernest Thompson Seton, part of our curriculum at the time) which I read with my kids for school a couple of years ago. We started off with a pleasant series of observations on the life of a crow, but then each successive story had a darker and darker turn until we were laughing at the possibility of there being a horrifying murder partridge as the final tale.
THAT was too much cruelty for a family-friendly book on nature; yours strikes the right balance.
Cruelty is after all, the surface Truth of this world so we indeed see the stuggles of the wild in our own, for all life is in conflict and each one of us dies if we do not keep breathing. Glad to have stuck the balance.
A lack of safe cruelty is a grand crippling force of many of the children of today. There's of course the real danger of traumatizing a child, but the suffocating safety of the padded playground is also abusive.
In the end, the children raised with soft hand will become hard rods for the backs of such foolish parents.
Thank you! The idea had been fermenting around, but this post was the most fitting for it.
The animals were tough given that all animals have their charms, and it's a sorry fate for an animal to be saddled with the gamma label, but rats are in normal circumstances a pest. A flea would be quite fitting too, in another tale.
Bear was also considered for the sigma, there's a lot of fitting 'loner' animals.
Bravo was the trickiest but wolves sort of actually have that position.
Alpha is by far the clearest, and rivals the sigma for wealth of options.
Delta fits wonderfully with beavers, but apart from ants and bees, its a bit of a struggle to think of delta-like animals, some obvious contenders are being missed unquestionably.
As for the omega, there's a lot to pick from all that cower, but to shroud in the unknown felt most fitting.
Not featured in the story, is the lambda of animals.
The honourable readers can have fun declaring which unfortunate animal gives off that impression.
Fleas are far too athletic to be gammas, and are hard to visualize as fat, being completely armoured head to toe while leaping hundreds of times their very size!
Rats in contrast have become fat to a far higher degree, and are easily visualized as such! Particularly if they or their rodent kin are excessively fed by humans!
Very well done. For most of your story, the images in my head were Beatrix Potter style animal pictures. But for the gamma mouse, I could only picture Doof. In my mind, Doof sounds exactly like Comic book guy from the Simpsons.
Alas, the frogs had it forced upon them! The bats forced it upon them!
The actual reality is if memory does not betray a little more horrific, the runoff from California fields was making frogs into hermaphrodites, supposedly, rumour has it, sources say.
Just an observation, but if Vox said Buddhism was the way, you’d have commenters shrug and maybe nod. But mention Christianity and there’ll be at least one carrying on as if he were being spritzed with holy water.
When I was going to AA there were those that would say they’d have never stayed if it were Jesus, as opposed to their ‘higher power as best they understood it’. I pointed out to one of them that Satan was a higher power, as was nearly any demon.
BTW the best term I’ve read form Vox about religion is ‘Churchian’. Once you see that term and see them in action, you can’t unsee it.
It's sufficient to say that they hate Christianity because it is true. However, it's also true that secular Westerners' disposition to Buddhism is rooted in implicit oriental fetishism. They might expect you to say the former, but point out the latter to them and see how they recoil.
Christianity is no more violent than any other historical religion. The Tokugawa shogunate was Buddhist, and killed several orders of magnitude more Christians than the Spanish Inquisition did non-Christians in a similar period. 90-99% of those martyrs were ethnic Japanese.
Buddhism is also the world religion in the most parlous state demographically, not Christianity. Possibly because of its ultimate nihilism. People are relatively aware about South Korea and Taiwan dying out, but who knew that Thailand was down at 1.0 children per woman?
I utilize a rhetorical device where, if my opponent insists that both Buddhism and Christianity are cults, I respond, "yes, but Christianity is a cult of Life, while Buddhism is a cult of death. If you had to choose, which would you choose?" The normie says "life, obviously" and the edgelord says "death" and chuckles, but the answer is the same.
Most Westerners who espouse Eastern religions are just skinsuiters with all the philosophical insight and moral depth of a Disney trailer. It's just another "spiritual pursuit" to feed their self-absorption and narcissism while feverishly trying to evade all those icky judgey bits.
The widespread adoption of Churchianism as the modren "Christianity" for the masses certainly doesn't help.
I almost wrote a similar comment earlier. You’re 100% right. Mention any religious icon other than Jesus and the response is minimal, but, as we’ve seen here this morning, Jesus brings out the gammas in droves fussing and hissing. That jives with my idea that Satan himself is the original Secret King.
I always thought that Gammas hate the idea of God as the Secret King deep down there cannot conceive of the idea that A) there is another God out there B) he sets the rules that apply to all and all are kept accountable with C) people seem to accept him as a God/King D) It reminds him how fallen and Gamma and shit he is E) that someone else might judge him and keep him accountable
With Jesus around he cannot be the (one and only) God who can tell anyone how it is done, how it should be done instead and that they are WRONG and, this way, ensure that only he is the Perfect Entity while everyone else is imperfect and beneath him. With Jesus around the Gamma cannot be the center of the world.
Can a virtuous Christian (believing, disciplined in action) ever be anything but a delta vis a vis God? It seems SSH rank is established by society, yet God for His own purposes might override (or use) the social milieu's judgment to thrust a man into a mission made possible by grace. Was Moses an Alpha or a Gamma thrust into a mission with divine aid?
I think Weird Al reads this. New video dropped.
>Whereas a Sigma will likely struggle with indifference and narcissism, the Alpha will struggle with his appetites and his pride. The Bravo with pettiness and cruelty, the Delta with taking responsibility, the Gamma with dishonesty and malice, the Omega with apathy and despair.
This is good. Such an accurate and concise portrait of the different phenotypes.
It's worth adding, for the third time, that St. Augustine was most likely a gamma and still a saint. Whereas there surely are several unrepentant sinners who are sigmas or alphas. Consider that for a moment before pretending to be something you're not.
There are way too many people that equate sigma/alpha = good and gamma = evil. Not so. Gammas may be annoying as hell, but evil is an entirely different thing. I'd say a post about a good role in society a gamma may shine on would be welcome.
Augustine was the leaven Jesus warned us about.
Among men there is natural order, but we are all judged equally by God.
Agreed. My two cents. Put gammas in charge of things, not people. My company just switched a gamma from a role of producing professional documents to enforcing compliance to said documents. Went from good to go to dumpster fire.
Good advice. One benefit (and yes I cringe a bit) about Jordan Peterson is it can be an entry to stoicism.
For all deltas, read the stoics. Read deeply from the old masters, not the new ones. Read the lives of the saints. Keep the faith. Do your job
Great post.
Is there any difference between low status and high status narcissism? I see Vox associate Sigma with some level of narcissism but am not sure how this is expressed.
How would you explain the difference in the way that an omega avoids responsibility in comparison to a gamma?
A Gamma will offer justifications as to why he was doing things that are not his job instead of what he's supposed to be doing. A Gamma will engage in any task he is not expressly prohibited from doing.
An Omega will give excuses for why he couldn't complete his tasks. These will typically be things are not all that insurmountable to any other SSH rank. An Omega will not complete any task that he has incomplete knowledge of.
This is a bit of a tough question to answer but I believe it is Gammas try to get someone else to do the thing for them while Omegas will just abandon whatever the responsibility is completely. Gammas by virtue of being in the hierarchy have a reason to make it seem like they are doing their job, Omegas much less so.
Yes. Narcissism is inherently different in each SSH rank observable behaviour.
Example:
Delta: narcissism is centered around the need to appear competent and be respected.
Gamma: narcissism is centered around the secret king love for rules and order.
Thus, even a Gamma or an Omega could be a Saint.
This remains THE one central Truth of our collective material human existence/experience in this earthly realm. Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the one and only begotten son of God and no person will ever come into the presence of the perfect Creator of the Universe except through Jesus Christ. Thank You for this post, Vox.
All Earthly Glory is various forms of Refraction of the Heavenly Glory of God.
All our Glory is ultimately borrowed and given by him. The best as Saints we can aspire to is to be God's Bravo. The Right-Hand Man of Jesus Christ as much as possible.
In the past I appreciated being able to view the world through different religious and philosophical lenses, but recently it seems that the choices are collapsing into just two: traditional Christianity and the worship of evil and perversion. I regret this change, but If I'm forced to choose between only two; then that's a really easy decision.
In regards to the painting:
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Triumph_of_Christian_religion%22_by_Laureti,_Vatican_Museum_(2994324341).jpg
There was a little mouse who was very much concerned about himself and his. One day, looking about his little mouse home, a nice enough place, he thought that he could do with a little bit of mouse success, but what was success?
He knew how to get the farmers grain, to get a little mouse wife and have little mouse children, but he thought it prudent to ask successful animals about their success, perhaps he could apply it in his own little mousey life.
First, he thought to visit the lion and his mighty pride. A glamorous handsome beast was this animal, surrounded by lionesses each more svelte than the last.
"Oh mighty Lion, spare this little mouse and grace him with an answer, what is success?"
Cracking open a eye, the lion was in a good mood, since no rivals had appeared for some time, and his stomach was full. He decided to humor the little mouse.
"Look at all around you, I am King of these plains, and my women hunt to fill my belly, I tell you little mouse, it is good to be the King, to rest full and pleased. All my desires are sated each day, can you claim the same little mouse? Best you become a little mouse king, with all the little mouse ladies waiting paw and whiskers on you!"
Saying that, he intended to rest once more, but another lion and came, threatening to take his women and kill his children, and the mouse watched in terror and awe as a fierce fight ensued, he fled before the victor was determined.
Next, when his little heart had stopped beating so very fast, the mouse sought the council of wolves. His timing was not the greatest as the wolves were at dinner. Nervously the mouse looked at steaming dead deer, but still he asked in squeaking voice;
"Noble wolves, fine hunters, spare this mouse and grace him with an answer what is success?"
The leader of the wolves didn't deign to answer, focused as he was on keeping order, watching the other wolves eat their rightful share, but one wolf barked a laugh and towered before the mouse.
"Look at our pack little mouse, see how good it is under the order of a wise leader! What a joy it is to work under him! To execute his will and together with fine comrades hunt prey! You would do well little mouse, to find a wise mouse king and serve him well, so well you'll be served!"
Having said his piece, it was going to be this wolf's turn to eat, but one of the lower ranked wolves, perhaps he was chancing it, or his paws slipped, but he looked to be closer to the dinner deer, than the wolf who spoke.
"Not your turn! Not your turn! Obey the leader's rules!"
The little mouse fled as one wolf was brutally savaged by another.
Now, the little mouse was weary of apex predators and thus sought the council of more sedate animals, that was how he found himself in company of the dutiful beaver amid heavy rain. Standing on no ceremony, he squeaked plainly.
"Ho good beaver, you're always ready to help a fellow out, tell this mouse, what is success?"
The beaver paused in lugging a sturdy branch, confused.
"Success? Have a look at our dam!"
The mouse did so, it was very nice.
"Nice innit?"
It was.
"Job's good, life's good, what more does a beaver need? Find yourself some work little mouse, and stick to it! Don't worry about success!"
Having said that, the beaver took his branch and shoved it into the dam, but as he did so, the rain had made the river mightier than the dam, and with an appalling crack, the work of the beavers was undone and they swam about in dismay like headless water fowl. It would take some time for the beavers to work once more. The little mouse left, more than a little disheartened.
As the little mouse wandered confused through the woods, he was accosted by a figure only a little larger than himself.
A fat rat, short and small among rats, but fat still.
"I've heard you've been talking to successful animals, I'm something of a successful animal myself, always have been!"
"Ok" muttered the mouse, continuing on his way.
The rat followed, yattering on.
"Those lions and wolves are fools struggling in life and death, and the beaver? Working? What sort of idiot works! They wish they could be as successful as I am!"
"I'm sure they do" the mouse murmured, picking up the pace.
Still the rat, huffing and puffing followed.
"You can only wish to be like me, but even if you're small, short and scrawny under my tutelage you could make it big kid!"
"I'm fine thanks!"
The fat rat reared up and hissed.
"Just like the others, you think you're too good huh? Here I am, trying to help kin! I'll show you!"
For as fat as the rat was, it wasn't easy fleeing from the wrathful rodent.
Head spinning, the mouse was resting before a deep dark den, he didn't like the look of it, but he was too tired after his flight to move. He did however hear heavy breathing coming from the den.
"W-who's there!" He called out.
"N-nobody and i-if there was, it'd be a bony someone with no meat, so you'd best not come inside, please!"
A strange notion took the mouse then, and he spoke with might unfamiliar to him.
"If you don't want me coming in and gobbling you up, you'd best answer my question! What is success!"
"Cruel! Cruel! Cruel! You intend to eat me, there's no such thing as success! To ask such a thing! Don't eat me!"
After much begging and pleading, the den dweller saw that nobody had come in to eat him.
"You aren't hungry right now? Well I guess you're saving me for later. I don't believe in success, but if you're talking survival, the raccoon will outlast us all"
Having his little breath back, and finding the den dweller disturbing, the mouse went one, seeking out the raccoon. He found many woodland animals knew of him, but neither hide nor tail could he find of this creature.
Finally after a lot of trouble, he found the raccoon messing about with some rocks.
"Ho..."
The mouse began his spiel, but the raccoon ignored him completely as if the mouse was air. The little mouse tried to make sense of what the raccoon was doing, but couldn't understand. He tried to talk to him, but the raccoon gave a glance that silenced the little mouse like magic. In the end the raccoon finished whatever he was doing with the rocks and left.
Three more times the mouse sought out the raccoon, each time finding the animal engaged in some obscure doing, except that time he found the raccoon with a lady raccoon. The mouse had left quickly of his own accord then.
Finally, one more time the mouse found the raccoon hanging from a branch over a sheer cliff.
"I beg you, tell me what success is and I'll leave you alone!"
Finding the mouse a hindrance to the enjoyment of the life risking breathtaking view, the raccoon finally answered.
"Just do as you please, why worry so much about success?"
The mouse could not reply for at that moment, the branch the raccoon was dangling from snapped, and the raccoon plummeted to his death, but the mouse was most taken with how the raccoon had laughed all the way to the bottom.
Perhaps more confused than when he began, grain and mouse wife far from his mind, the little mouse decided to ask the oldest tree in the wood what success is.
A massive gnarled oak, ancient in years, the little mouse had a very hard time climbing up this venerable elder, still he managed and asked.
"O great tree who has witnessed many seasons, what is success?"
A grand creaking and shuddering accompanied the voice of the elder tree.
"That any of you creatures can speak of success is a mystery, all of you die, but..."
The mouse heard no more, for reminded of the things he had seen, and the shadow of death, he heard not the following words from the tree.
Blindly the little mouse wandered into the misty bog. Lost and terrified, and terrified further that he was in the deadly misty bog, the mouse tried to find his way back out.
It was then that he encountered a stranger in the fog. He couldn't see the form of this being, but he had hypnotic eyes and a pleasing hiss.
"Poor little mouse, all alone in the bog, what brings you here?"
The mouse told his tale, of seeking success and finding death.
"If you trust me, climb into my mouth, and I'll bring you far away from here, to a land of success where nobody ever dies!"
The mouse was greatly tempted, but just as he was about to climb on forked tongue, a chilling hoot called out.
An impact, and the snake lay dead before the mouse. Fog clearing from his little head, the mouse's little heart almost stopped.
"Be not afraid" said the owl, tearing into snake flesh.
"This day I feast on snake and you are spared"
Summoning up his courage.
"Great terror of the sky, spare this mouse and grace him with an answer what is success?"
A hooting laugh, for the owl was blessed with knowledge and his eyes piercing the mouse knew what he had seen and heard.
"Had you stayed to listen to the tree you would know, instead you fled in fear with only the Truth of Death. If you would be more than meal for worms, seek the Lord of the Forest!"
With that, the owl flew away with the rest of the snake.
The poor little mouse was still lost in the Misty Bog, possessing no success and the Truth of Death.
However this tale is now much longer than the mouse's tail, so how he escaped is a story for another time...
This was such a great story! It puts the SSH into such a perspective that makes it extremely easy to understand. Reminds me of the Chronicles of Narnia. And Animal Farm, too.
I salute you. Great writing. There are several good commenters around these parts, but you're one of the best.
Enormously well done
Niiiice!
Now turn it into a picture of book and take my money.
I agree with what Julie C observes, it's just the right amount of cruelty. Perhaps using particularly beautiful art to offset the animals' fate to the reality of the world around them, would inhance the story.
Also, I live the visual of a racoon laughing while falling to his death.
This teller can amatuerly sculpt, but pictures are a bit of a stretch, that said, a wrangler of image generators could solve that issue. Something similar to the art in the beatrix potter books would be nice, perhaps a little softer, as you said to ofset the grim reality.
While being as reckless and indifferent as the raccoon is questionable, to be able to face death laughing beats a lot of ways to die.
I love how you had the beaver speak; the "innit" in there just immediately gave him a flavor of character that made me think of a near-cockney version of one of Lewis' beavers.
Well done, the beginning parts of the story reminded a bit of the story of the Sword of Damocles.
Julie C, I thought the same. Loved this one, Snowyteller. Great stuff!
Almost had the mouse invited in for tea, but that would have been a bit cheery for a tale with the focus it had.
Gotta do a tea party, last time this teller wrote a tea party it was a bunch of vampires discussing a hot new cult, which was fun but not cheery. A more cheerful party with fancy animals would be nice.
Can even tie it into the hierarchy without it being as cruel a tale.
In this instance, I think the cruelty is part of what makes it resonate. Human nature, in its way, is just as red in tooth and claw as that of the beasts of the field.
I'm reminded of a natural history book ("Wild Animals I Have Known" by Ernest Thompson Seton, part of our curriculum at the time) which I read with my kids for school a couple of years ago. We started off with a pleasant series of observations on the life of a crow, but then each successive story had a darker and darker turn until we were laughing at the possibility of there being a horrifying murder partridge as the final tale.
THAT was too much cruelty for a family-friendly book on nature; yours strikes the right balance.
Cruelty is after all, the surface Truth of this world so we indeed see the stuggles of the wild in our own, for all life is in conflict and each one of us dies if we do not keep breathing. Glad to have stuck the balance.
A lack of safe cruelty is a grand crippling force of many of the children of today. There's of course the real danger of traumatizing a child, but the suffocating safety of the padded playground is also abusive.
In the end, the children raised with soft hand will become hard rods for the backs of such foolish parents.
A pity.
But, which animal am I?
That is just fantastic!
You worked in all the SSH ranks rather nicely there. Good choices for the symbolic animals too.
Thank you! The idea had been fermenting around, but this post was the most fitting for it.
The animals were tough given that all animals have their charms, and it's a sorry fate for an animal to be saddled with the gamma label, but rats are in normal circumstances a pest. A flea would be quite fitting too, in another tale.
Bear was also considered for the sigma, there's a lot of fitting 'loner' animals.
Bravo was the trickiest but wolves sort of actually have that position.
Alpha is by far the clearest, and rivals the sigma for wealth of options.
Delta fits wonderfully with beavers, but apart from ants and bees, its a bit of a struggle to think of delta-like animals, some obvious contenders are being missed unquestionably.
As for the omega, there's a lot to pick from all that cower, but to shroud in the unknown felt most fitting.
Not featured in the story, is the lambda of animals.
The honourable readers can have fun declaring which unfortunate animal gives off that impression.
Wolves as Bravos is a good choice, especially considering what dogs are.
For the Omega animal, I was thinking a mole. Fat, basically blind, hides underground, solitary, and small enough to be intimidated by a mouse.
I had trouble imagining a fearful den dweller. Thanks for a good candidate.
You did well in choosing the rat for Gamma!
Fleas are far too athletic to be gammas, and are hard to visualize as fat, being completely armoured head to toe while leaping hundreds of times their very size!
Rats in contrast have become fat to a far higher degree, and are easily visualized as such! Particularly if they or their rodent kin are excessively fed by humans!
Owl is the Sigma?
The raccoon is meant to be. (With a little salute to Sherlock Holmes thrown in.)
Very well done. For most of your story, the images in my head were Beatrix Potter style animal pictures. But for the gamma mouse, I could only picture Doof. In my mind, Doof sounds exactly like Comic book guy from the Simpsons.
Alex Jones would contend it were the Frogs.
Alas, the frogs had it forced upon them! The bats forced it upon them!
The actual reality is if memory does not betray a little more horrific, the runoff from California fields was making frogs into hermaphrodites, supposedly, rumour has it, sources say.
Ears of a bat,
Claws of cat,
Mixing potions,
Till all the frogs are vaxxed.
I suspect the fat rat's name is Doof.
A fat indoor cat perhaps?
Lambda is a neutered pet.
Great post.
Morality and belief is the foundation for self improvement.
Jesus Christ is the only vehicle that can transform human civilization long term.
Submit to something. Submitting to the All Creator is the best choice.
The paragraph below Dark Lord cartoon is great.
Just an observation, but if Vox said Buddhism was the way, you’d have commenters shrug and maybe nod. But mention Christianity and there’ll be at least one carrying on as if he were being spritzed with holy water.
When I was going to AA there were those that would say they’d have never stayed if it were Jesus, as opposed to their ‘higher power as best they understood it’. I pointed out to one of them that Satan was a higher power, as was nearly any demon.
BTW the best term I’ve read form Vox about religion is ‘Churchian’. Once you see that term and see them in action, you can’t unsee it.
Pairs with "churchianity" nicely.
It's sufficient to say that they hate Christianity because it is true. However, it's also true that secular Westerners' disposition to Buddhism is rooted in implicit oriental fetishism. They might expect you to say the former, but point out the latter to them and see how they recoil.
Christianity is no more violent than any other historical religion. The Tokugawa shogunate was Buddhist, and killed several orders of magnitude more Christians than the Spanish Inquisition did non-Christians in a similar period. 90-99% of those martyrs were ethnic Japanese.
Buddhism is also the world religion in the most parlous state demographically, not Christianity. Possibly because of its ultimate nihilism. People are relatively aware about South Korea and Taiwan dying out, but who knew that Thailand was down at 1.0 children per woman?
I utilize a rhetorical device where, if my opponent insists that both Buddhism and Christianity are cults, I respond, "yes, but Christianity is a cult of Life, while Buddhism is a cult of death. If you had to choose, which would you choose?" The normie says "life, obviously" and the edgelord says "death" and chuckles, but the answer is the same.
Most Westerners who espouse Eastern religions are just skinsuiters with all the philosophical insight and moral depth of a Disney trailer. It's just another "spiritual pursuit" to feed their self-absorption and narcissism while feverishly trying to evade all those icky judgey bits.
The widespread adoption of Churchianism as the modren "Christianity" for the masses certainly doesn't help.
Largely, many if not all of the pseudo-religions of the west, Marxism included, are Christianity with the serial numbers filled off.
I almost wrote a similar comment earlier. You’re 100% right. Mention any religious icon other than Jesus and the response is minimal, but, as we’ve seen here this morning, Jesus brings out the gammas in droves fussing and hissing. That jives with my idea that Satan himself is the original Secret King.
I always thought that Gammas hate the idea of God as the Secret King deep down there cannot conceive of the idea that A) there is another God out there B) he sets the rules that apply to all and all are kept accountable with C) people seem to accept him as a God/King D) It reminds him how fallen and Gamma and shit he is E) that someone else might judge him and keep him accountable
With Jesus around he cannot be the (one and only) God who can tell anyone how it is done, how it should be done instead and that they are WRONG and, this way, ensure that only he is the Perfect Entity while everyone else is imperfect and beneath him. With Jesus around the Gamma cannot be the center of the world.
Gammas the "Secret Kings". The "Mary Sue" that is special for simply existing and not by demonstrating it by True Heroic action.
Pride is often the Gamma's fall.
Just as soap enables water to form large air bubbles, pride enables the gamma to form large delusion bubbles.