To Catch a Wild Pig (A Parable of an Enslaved Society)

An old high school friend of mine who is now working as a psychiatrist abroad in one of a top European university had sent me a wonderful piece called “Catching the Wild Pigs”. For those of you who have never heard this parable (and I hadn’t until sometime back), here it is:

A chemistry professor at a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (an exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist government. In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, ‘Do you know how to catch wild pigs?’ The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. ‘You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and throw the corns on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put up a fence down on one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start s to eat again.

You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs who are used to the free corn, starts to come through the gate to eat; you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity forever.

I found this an extremely fascinating and interesting parable and one I can totally endorse today for our society. For we must guard carefully not to fall into the trap of being so dependent on the government for every developmental and financial support, the illegal immigrants for all kinds of work and the easy –money we get from devious means that we lose our sense of responsibility or morality for our lives and even worse, the very spark of life. But we should be able to stand on our own feet using the very essence of our forefathers by working and eating by ourselves. Imbibing the work culture, and yes the dignity of labour.

Here, the pigs represents us (our Naga Society today, to be precise), the free corn represents money, incentives and other luxurious things we have become accustomed to and the fence represents the entrapment of our inflated egos, misplaced passions, vested interests and the short-sighted enticements which has enslaved us from where we cannot get out. For most of the pigs, they now find the fence as a part of the cycle of their present life. When we become accustomed and engrossed to the things which are now thrown to us in our everyday life we become unable to move out of our comfort zones. Today, every stakeholder in our Naga Society, yes everyone, which includes both you and me too, all of us carry a resemblance to this parable of the wild pigs ,about the free corn and the fence which has surrounded us from all the four sides.

Unless we unite and bring down the fence together with all our might, we can never free from the confines of the fence and we are going to remain in captivity of our own attitudes and egos that divides us forever. Some may want to go back into the woods and enjoy their freedom but some wants to keep on enjoying the free corn and that is going to be the ultimate end of not only those pigs enjoying the free corns but as well as for other fellow pigs who wants to be free again. Yes, we are all like these wild pigs inside the fence being fed with the free corn thrown to them. Think over it. It is a complete reflection of our Naga society today no matter how much we deny in accepting ourselves of what we truly are. If we have the true courage to accept ourselves of what we are, then only we will be able to come out of the fence which has enslaved us .But when we are not ready to admit and accept the reality, the elusive change will never take place no matter how much we think or talk about it. It does not only take a strong will, but some real courage and sacrifice to accept and admit it. Without changing our mindset but wanting to change our lifestyle is what is making us become like those pigs that are trapped inside the fence now. We blame governments, civil societies, church, NGOs, the society but aren’t all these we ourselves? Don’t all these exist because you and me are there? When we blame all these we are only blaming ourselves because you and me comprises of all these. Wanting to change but not ready to shed our old ways of thinking, ideas and habits will never enable us to come out of the fence which has entrapped us. It is like those entrapped pigs creating their filth where they are enjoying their free corns. Denial means we are afraid to accept the truth about ourselves. In order to jump farther we need to move more backwards so we can gain more force and momentum and consolidate our foothold and thus break down the fences that have been put around us. There are no free throwaway meals without some ulterior motive of the thrower most of the time. What seems to be dearest to us at the moment for our short term glories will be giving us the most distressing outcomes later. It’s time for introspection during the most adverse moments.Distancing ourselves from the hard truth and the reality around us will only make us move around in the same old dirt inside the fence. We all are like those wild pigs today and all of us are enjoying the free corn inside the fence. This is our Naga society today. Don’t deny it.

Jonah Achumi