The Hybrid's Share

A story based on "The Lion's Share" (an Aesop's fable)

An elephant and a donkey were in love (but not necessarily with each other).  They married in the spring and shortly thereafter gave birth to a hybrid creature.

This hybrid grew to mammoth proportions, dwarfing both donkey and elephant.  No matter what they did to nurture the hybrid, it continued to grow out of control and proceeded to take over the entire household.  They tried to teach it manners and morals, but the hybrid soon dominated both the elephant and the donkey.  The hybrid quickly began exhausting their resources and undermining their authority.  They had given birth to a monster.

Over the course of time, the hybrid's desire for money and power caused dissent in the relationship between the elephant and the donkey.  The more powerful the hybrid became, the more bitterly the elephant and the donkey argued.  The more bitterly the elephant and the donkey argued, the more powerful the hybrid became.

One day, at dinner time, the elephant, the donkey, and the hybrid sat down at their lavishly decorated table, a table abundant with spoils that the three of them had taken from their neighbors so that they could gorge themselves gluttonously at the expense of those who had labored to make it so.  None of the three cared how they got their food, only that it was theirs to take as they pleased.

The hybrid told the donkey to divide the shares so that they could all indulge in the fruits of their neighbors' labor.  Once the donkey had divided the shares, the hybrid smashed the donkey in the face and said, "I'm bigger than you.  How dare you deign to believe that you deserve any of this."

The hybrid then turned on the elephant and with a growl asked, "Do you think that you deserve a share?"

"No," replied the elephant.  "You are my child and I willingly give you the right to take all of this from the donkey, myself, and all of our neighbors."

The hybrid continued to grow and the elephant and the donkey continued to bicker while their neighbors continued to pay for their greed and gluttony.  Eventually the countryside was decimated because of this trio's ignorance and greed.

The moral of the story is: The government that you control can quickly become so big that it will control you and, once that happens, there is nothing that you can do to stop it.