The Parable of the Prime Minister and the Indian Rhinoceros

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, what makes the powerful so blind to their vulnerabilities?”

Josh spoke thus:

A prime minister and the prime minister’s spouse were examining an Indian rhinoceros at the zoo.  The animal’s pen was a failed attempt to replicate the rhinoceros’s native environment, with large-leaved green plants, tropical flowers, exotic birds and what looked like a small stand of bamboo.

“They say it’s only a matter of time before the Indian rhinoceros is extinct,” the prime minister’s spouse said.  “The horn of the rhinoceros is considered able to cure impotence.”

“If its horn cures impotence, then how come the animal is going extinct?” the prime minister asked.

“There are many forces that can destroy a species,” the prime minister’s spouse said, “There is hunting.  Others who seek the power of the rhinoceros’s horn will hunt it down and kill it.  They’ll leave the carcass for the vultures, for the crows, for the dogs, for the jackals.  The hunters will leave the dead rhinoceros to bloat and rot, taking only the rhinoceros’s horn, hoping to possess the power of the rhinoceros’s horn, which in the end probably is no power at all.”

“Would it be better if they took the whole carcass?” the prime minister asked, “The rhinoceros would still be dead.  And what if the rhinoceros were to die of disease?  Then the carcass would still bloat and rot, and would still be left to the vultures, the crows, the dogs and the jackals.  In the meantime, no one would have profited from the horn.  At least this way, somebody makes some money, and this way somebody may get a medicinal benefit.”

“There is no medicinal benefit,” the prime minister’s spouse said, “The power of the rhinoceros’s horn is a myth.”

“It’s a myth I could use some of,” the prime minister said.

“And then there’s habitat loss,” the prime minister’s spouse said, “The forests are being felled.  The grasses are being razed.  The swamps are being drained.”

“But habitat loss is inevitable,” the prime minister said, “There are earthquakes, there are fires, there are floods.  Asteroids fall from the sky.  Continents collide with continents.  Seas rise, rivers recede, glaciers advance and retreat.  No species is eternal.  At least this way, we get wood from the forest, we get grain from the grasses, we get living space from the swamps.  Perhaps it is the end of the time of the rhinoceros.”

“We will follow the rhinoceros,” the prime minister’s spouse said, “We will tumble from our heights.  We will outlive our time.  We will be extinct.”

“When did the subject change from the rhinoceros to us?” the prime minister asked.

Turning to leave, the prime minister’s spouse replied, “I know about the prostitutes.  If I know about the prostitutes, others know about the prostitutes.”  The prime minister’s wife waived at the caged animal and said, “Good-bye Indian rhinoceros!”