Si vis pacem, para bellum

The hares harangued the assembly, and argued that all should be equal.

The Lions replied: "Your words, O Hares! are good; but they lack both claws and teeth such as we have."

Source: Aesop's Works (600 BC - 564 BC)

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This is one of my favorite fables of Aesop, because it is concise but very significant, and shows us splendidly the nature of lions and hares, of the strong and the weak, of the dominant and the dominated.

The first thing we should notice is the following, the nature of the weak, of the incapable, when they want something, is to ask, the nature of the strong ones on the contrary is to take. The hares ask for something they don't know that nobody can give them; equality, which is the equivalent of asking for things that must be taken by nature, such as liberty, justice, independence or sovereignty. No one who is not capable of taking these things by himself will be able to have them, which I have already explained in the past.

Should lions give hares equality? The truth is that the question should not be that, the question should be; can lions give hares equality? And the answer will always be a resounding no.

If the lions, and I promise that I will soon stop talking metaphorically and I will exemplify a bit, give hares equality, this will be a false equality, a fictitious equality, because both are not equal, and the hares will depend on the benevolence of the lion to be equal, therefore, the weak will depend on the self-repression of the strong, which cannot last long.

The lions will dominate, not to say that they will eat, the hares, and that is their nature, so we should not be surprised, only after the hares have accepted their differences, and stop asking for things they cannot take, they can effectively sneak away from the lion's domination.

Let's look at the following, when a powerful country, like the United States, has its interests in a small one, say Iraq, we should not be surprised if the strongest acts as a lion, that is totally foreseeable, it would be to appeal only to the benevolence of the first to hope that he did not, which, as we said, can not last long.

We must direct our eyes, not to the dominant one, which it has by nature to dominate, but to the dominated one, because it is this one who is interested in changing the situation.

What can the hare do to avoid falling prey to the lion? It's perhaps what we should ask, and for that we will resort to two examples, one historical and the other modern, that will show us magnificent lessons on how to draw strength from weakness; Sparta and Switzerland.

Switzerland, an example for the world in many issues, has in fact a strong inspiration in ancient Greece, its administrative division in cantons reminds a lot of the poleis of Hellas, and its compulsory military service system, in which the need for an autonomous army is almost dispensed, is reminiscent of ancient Athens or even Sparta.

Switzerland is famous for many things, among them, for its long-standing neutrality in a continent that has suffered the worst of two world wars, and it is not for nothing, there are strong international interests to keep it that way, but it has also been something reciprocal, the Swiss have known how to make the most of their "weakness".

We must understand the following, the small countries, as well as the weak ones in all kinds of things, are like the hares, the big cats have their interests in these and are unable every time to win the fight, but this does not mean that they are destined to perish, they should only make the cost of attacking them greater than the benefit obtained.

Let's remember what Adam Smith says in "The Wealth of Nations":

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.

If the lion, in its selfishness, seeks to dominate the hare, the latter must make the cost of this action very high to avoid domination or even attempt.

In the example of Switzerland, we speak of a country that is mostly mountainous, small, with few natural resources, and with a population that is highly armed and ready to protect itself. In this way, we see that anyone who wants to place their fangs in such a territory, should try hard to obtain practically no benefit. Thus, hares protect themselves from lions.

If we go to the case of Sparta we find a truly amazing case, because it is about times when wars were common currency and were given more durably. Sparta was a small and poor city that was in the middle of all action, surrounded by the powers of the Mediterranean, nations with desire for conquest and domination, however, the Spartans could survive for more than seven centuries.

Neither the Persia of Xerxes, nor the Athens of Pericles, could ever subject the Spartans, nor Alexander the Great, who was Hegemon of all Greece except Sparta, only the Romans could conquer this small city.

The secret of Sparta was their high training, which would make them the first proper army in Europe, accompanied by the poverty of their territory, which would make any attempt to conquer the city totally counterproductive and caused only by foolishness, thus, no one would have a real interest in conquering the Lacedaemonians.

Of course, the Spartans took it to the extremes, being their territory much poorer than the Swiss, and being at the same time more predisposed to combat than these, they found themselves in a situation in which they had absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Thus, hares become lions.

Neither let us be deceived by the dichotomy, the lions are not better for having more strength, nor hares for speaking nice, and neither is it about who is the good or the bad, or being lions or hares, because we are all, depending of the circumstances, both. It is about understanding that there cannot be equality between unequals, and that, unless the hares get claws and fangs will depend on the benevolence of the lions.

It is then the old Roman adage "si vis pacem, para bellum", or "if you want peace, prepare for war". The equality between hares and lions is not achieved by weakening the strong, but by strengthening the weak, and ultimately, it is not up to the hares to ask for anything, but to take it, and if they cannot take it, they should settle for passivity.

This is the nature of the strong and the weak, as it always has been, and it will be, because the strong give primacy to the force, it does not matter if it seems unfair or bad in law, because that is in facts.

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