Why is offence so easily taken?
What should the chickens do?
Did you hear the one about the chickens in the çoup?
Well, the story goes something like this:
Once upon a time there were hundreds of chickens in a coop. They had plenty of room and really had quite a nice life. Food came regularly and they were pretty much left to their own devices for most of the time. They had a lot of good friendships among themselves, and some interesting family relationships. But news had started to filter through to them from the outside world that there might be a small problem, and one day they may need to do something about it.
None of the chickens really took this to heart until they heard about what had happened in a coop some distance away. A fox had somehow managed to gain access to the coop. Normally foxes are kept well away by a ‘security ring’ which the keepers of the coop had placed around them. What had gone wrong? It was reported, on no mean authority, that almost half of the coop had been taken out, and those that were left were suffering badly from PTSD.
This news prompted the governing committee of the coop to meet to discuss the situation. How were they going to meet the challenge if a fox managed to enter their coop? They were aware of two outcomes for the occupants of the coop and needed to make preparations both for the chickens who would be taken out and the consequences for those who would remain. It seemed to them that they would have to engage in some preparatory exercises with the members of the coop so that in the event of such an incursion they would know what to do and how to behave in order the limit the damage that the presence of a fox in the coop would cause. However how could they do this without increasing the sense of unease that had begun to develop in their closely knit community.
They decided that they would continue to trust in the well established security ring rather than risk a panic or riot in the coop. This head in the sand attitude was however swiftly blown away when a neighbouring coop reported a breach in the security ring. The fox, or was it foxes, had not actually gained entrance, but it was thought that they may have simply been testing the strength of the system and a full scale incursion into the coop would soon follow.
So what were they to do? It seemed that some kind of practice exercise would be required. They would identify and train several of their fellow chickens, as policemen and security personnel. Their jobs would be to protect the other members of the coop. They would do this by patrolling the coop and keeping an eye open for trouble and possible damage to the perimeter of the coop in order if at all possible to forestall any possible attempt to gain access to the coop.
The committee also understood that they would have to prepare for an incursion. The security personnel would have particular responsibilities in such a case and the other members of the community would also need to know what to do. It seemed inevitable that they would have to stage a fake incursion in order that the community may learn what the proper response should be.
Now a practice run would be quite an undertaking. How could they realistically hope to do this? It was unthinkable that they could use a real fox in the staged attempt, but something had to be found to produce an air of realism or else the whole exercise would be, not only a complete waste of time, but of no value in teaching the community how to respond in the face of a real emergency.
Well, said one member, a fox is a dog, is it not? We shall use a dog. We shall invite one of the local dogs to come in a pretend to be a fox for the purpose of this exercise.
The other members of the committee were quick to take up the suggestion and an invitation was drafted to the chief shepherd dog.
The proposal caused an outcry! The dogs were enraged. Foxes may be extremists they cried, but not all dogs are extremists. Most dogs are moderates and peace loving. They don’t want to hurt chickens. If you use a dog in your show you imply that all dogs are extremists and you risk turning the entire dog community against you. We shall provide a suitable actor for you.
No amount of protest that no such thing was meant, that the chickens understood that not all dogs are extremists intent on harm, but the reality was that foxes – all foxes – are. So, some weeks later after much planning the exercise would go ahead: What to do in the event of an incursion into the coop.
The chickens had been taught that the first thing to do is to remain calm. If they become agitated they will lose control of the situation giving the upper hand to the incursant (no longer called a fox). They had been taught to move themselves to the highest parts of the coop which the incursant would not be able to scale. They had been taught that if cornered to make themselves look bigger by puffing out their feathers and stretching their wings, by doing this they may frighten away smaller incursants. If the incursant was a larger animal then they should stay close together and present a united front to the incursant.
Nobody knew quite what to expect or when, apart from a few committee members and the chief shepherd dog who had agreed to assist and brief the actor in the role. For a few days there was an eerie quietness in the coop. You could tell that the chickens were getting uneasy. And then it happened. There was an outcry outside the coop. This distraction caused the security forces inside the coop to turn away for a few minutes from their job of watching the perimeter and it was at that moment the incursion took place.
Suddenly, and unnoticed by anyone – how did he get there? Where was the breach in the perimeter? No one knew, but it had happened. The incursant had arrived. But the chickens knew what to do. Keep calm. Move to the high places. Puff yourself up if cornered. Stick together.
The chickens moved calmly, swiftly and almost silently to their chosen places high in the rafters and eves of the coop, safely out of the way of the incursant.
The incursant did not seem to be at all surprised at this. He investigated all of the places within his reach. He moved swiftly around the floor of the coop where no chickens were to be found. Then with a hop, skip and jump he decided, as there were no playmates there, it was time to leave, so returned to his entry point to make his egress.
It was then that the chickens gasped in horror. Just as they had been watching the incursant as he roamed around the hutch so they also watched as he left the coop and they, from the dizzy heights of the coop, saw what he did not see. Alas, for our poor little lamb had not noticed the two extremist dogs. The foxes, whom they so much dread, had crept up stealthily whilst the exercise was being undertaken and positioned themselves ready for ambush.
Where now were the moderate dogs who had chosen the lamb for an actor? History does not record for us either the fate of this lamb nor of the coop, but rumour has it that when Alexander passed that way he cried out: What coop was this?
The prophet wrote:
⁴Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; ⁷he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
Isaiah 53:4-5,7
And the Lord himself said:
³³Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles; ³⁴and they will mock him, and scourge him, and spit on him, and kill him, and the third day he will rise again.
Mark 10:33-34
