Those Chicken Littles

Chicken Little was in the forest one day, when an acorn fell on her head. It scared her so much, she trembled all over. She shook so hard, half her feathers fell out.

"Help, help! The sky is falling! I have to go tell the king!"

Along the way, she met Henny Penny.

"Where are you going, Chicken Little?"
"Oh help! The sky is falling!"
"How do you know?"
"I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"
"This is terrible! Just terrible! We'd better hurry up!"

It's amazing how backward glances at childhood fairy tales can give so much perspective in one's present life. The fancy phraseology would be "in retrospect". It's hard to think of this little story without being annoyed not only by the silly little hen, but by the other barnyard fowl who followed her (unquestioningly) all through the forest. These days, my thoughts dwell on religious themes (note I said 'religious', not 'spiritual'), so I couldn't help but link the story of Chicken Little with so many religious movements.

There are millions of fervent, zealous, trusting 'believers', all over the world. Half of the reason they continue to 'believe' is that 'someone' related something to them, and they have no doubt in their minds that that person was telling them the truth. True, they didn't really have the time/means/inclination to background-check 'someone's' story, but it's a plausible enough story on the surface. Besides why would 'someone' lie to them? What would 'someone' stand to gain by fostering lies? Never for a minute do they stop to think that 'someone' could have gotten their facts mixed up or twisted.

In 'someone's' defence, maybe 'someone' is really convinced that the story/information/data they're passing on is accurate (otherwise of course they'd keep their traps shut). Maybe 'someone' really thinks that they have access to the information that the rest of humankind really needs to know. However, sincerity of aspirations and purity of belief doesn't alter fact, any more than Chicken Little's acorn could become a piece of the sky.

Fortunately for Chicken Little and her cronies, they're just barnyard fowl given human characteristics by an imaginative human mind. They're simply not capble of critical thinking, and no one expects them to do so, cuz.. duh! They're fictional animals! Henny Penny didn't need to ask Chicken Little what the 'sky' looked like, or what it 'sounded' like, or where the heck it disappeared to, or where was the hole in the sky where it had supposedly fallen out. Had she done so, the story would have progressed differently.

For human beings, though, one's reticence to question "Chicken Little" can lead to so much misery and disillusionment. For one, there is the task of defending one's 'position' tooth and nail, and fighting to the bitter end. Nobody wants to be thought of as being gullible for just following this chick through the forest, so offense is the best defense. Chicken Little assured them that she 'saw, heard and felt' the sky, so that's their standard response. Few question, is this really my idea? Did I come up with this notion on my own? What does 'someone' stand to gain by my continued support? What do I stand to gain by my continued support? In their quest to "keep the faith, some are willing to bear arms, invade foreign territories, imprison non-believers, blow themselves up, blow others up, make attempt to make others to feel stupid/ignorant/a-lost-cause if they express doubt that Chicken Little's story seems embellished.

There's a second group who have niggling doubts about this whole 'falling sky thing'. They've been from one end of the forest to the next, and no more pieces of the sky have falen out. Who is this Chicken Little anyway? However, they'd hate to lose out on protection in the king's palace just because they didn't want to believe Chicken Little. It's a win-win situation: if the sky isn't falling, then their pride and intuition are still in tact.. but if by some defiance of nature the sky is falling, well.. they'll be protected, having lost nothing. Furthermore, 50 million Frenchmen can't be wrong!

Yet another group (not mentioned) in the story are those who say, "Chicken Little done lost her MIND". And they mosey along with their lives. If others choose to follow Chicken Little through the forest, that's their loss!

And finally is the group represented by the Foxy Loxy who (depending on which version of the story you read) had quite a feast at the end of the story. Foxy Loxy is no more a believer than the members of the third group. But it's a good story, and it (and its believers) could line his stomach (pockets) very well, thank you! At the end of the story, the fowl never get to the king, and their story dies with them. But, Foxy Loxy knows that all he has to do is climb another tree, and toss another acorn at another gullible hen. (Yeah.. that last sentence was pure invention)