Those who can't kill will always be subject to those who can

This is a quote from the Generation Kill mini-series about a group of US marines and their lives during the first days of the invasion of Iraq and it's something that stuck with me ever since I first heard it. Replace the word kill with lie, cheat or steal and you still have a very valid sentence. There are those among us who are willing to play outside the established rules of the game, and for the most part, even though they might receive retaliation, they have the advantage, or maybe, better put, they leave everybody else at a disadvantage.

This is the centuries old story of the scorpion and the frog, and it offers a lesson which is as valuable today as it ever was. The moral of the fable is that human nature can't be helped sometimes, and some people will hurt others, regardless of the fact that they might also hurt themselves in the process.

Who is the frog? Well, the frog is a believer. Some might say it's naive, that it represents a person that wants to see the good in everything despite all the signs pointing to the obvious. Helping others and having a positive social behavior is part of human nature and something that's ingrained in our DNA and behavior as a species, so the frog isn't just an idiot, it's a regular guy, somebody that wants to help and believes in positive change.

The scorpion is an opportunist. It's not intrinsically bad, it was just born with certain tools and skills. A killer and a predator, it has his well established role in the food chain, just like the frog has. And again, negative social behavior is also part of human nature. Aggression is as important to the survival of the species just as much as empathy is.

The fable is quite interesting because in the end, it goes to show that nothing is gained. The scorpion goes back to its true self, kills the frog and they both drown together. The frog doesn't get the satisfaction of having trusted somebody and seeing them change in a positive manner and the scorpion doesn't get to where he wanted to go.

There will always be an exchange of stings and misplaced trust between people. Some are natural born killers, others will forever be the optimistic frogs, but for the vast majority of people, they will switch between those roles many times in their lives. It is in our nature to hurt and get hurt, as much as we may try to avoid it. If you're the frog, don't worry, you're going to get stung, but your skin will get thicker in time, and even though a part of you dies, it's the part that you should get rid of anyway. If you're a scorpion, you better learn how to swim because maybe one day you'll meet that thick skinned frog and it will kick you off its back and let you drown when it realizes your true nature.