The Honest Courtesan

Once upon a time there was a vast jungle full of many different kinds of creatures, who made so much noise only the loudest of them, the elephants and the asses, could clearly be heard amid the din.  Naturalists often visited the jungle and sometimes focused on one animal or another, filming them and talking about them for nature shows.  Now in this jungle there lived a little bird of a fairly rare variety, and though it wanted to be heard the naturalists could never make out its tiny voice amid the cacophony, so they never talked about or even thought about the little bird, and neither did anyone else.  Eventually, the little bird got tired of singing its little song for no one to hear, and so it simply stopped singing and minded its own business.  Now, a few thoughtful explorers had seen the little bird and knew it existed; an even smaller number had even heard its little song.  So they said to the naturalists, “Maybe the naturalists should consider that little bird’s quiet little song, even though few ears are good enough to hear it.”  But the naturalists were always accompanied by an unruly gang of fans, and rather than admit that perhaps their idols should be more aware of rare creatures, they blamed the little bird, saying, “If little birds want to be heard, they should peep at the exact same time as the elephant trumpeting or the asses braying, so they can be heard along with those other animals.”  When the thoughtful explorers pointed out that merely increasing (by some infinitesimal amount) the noise made by other creatures with whom they had nothing in common was hardly likely to call attention to the little bird in any way, the gang members merely asked if the explorers wanted the “bad” animals to win, and declared that if the little bird really wanted to be heard, it should have been hatched as an ass or elephant.  Then they congratulated themselves on their great wisdom, and resumed arguing over whether the elephants’ trumpeting or the asses’ braying made lovelier music.  And they were so preoccupied with their argument that none of them noticed when a wildfire started and burned them all up together, elephants and asses and naturalists and fans and explorers, and the little bird too.