YOU probably know the fable of the scorpion and the frog. Stuck on the riverbank, unable to swim, the scorpion asks the frog if he will carry it over the water. The frog is dubious, eyeing the scorpion’s poisoned tail, worried that it will sting.

The scorpion promises that it’ll keep its stinger to itself. After all, if it deals the frog its deathblow in the middle of the river – they’ll both drown, it explains.

Persuaded by this logic, the frog leaps off its lily pad into the water and the ­scorpion settles down to be ferried over to the other side. After a few good strokes, agony rips through the frog. It’s been stung.

As its limbs seize up and the water rises, it croaks a final question at the scorpion: “Why did you sting me? Now we will both surely drown.” “It’s in my character,” the scorpion says, sinking with him.

The fable has its origins in Russian ­folklore. As the genre goes, this ­folktale has an unusual cautionary message: ­self-interest never explains everything. It seems to say sometimes people inclined towards ­badness will be bad – not because it helps them at all, but because doing harm is in their nature. They just can’t help themselves.

Choose to charm

With politicians, it isn’t unusual for there to be a public and a private face they wear. Many of the best of them – purely from a performance perspective – have the actor’s knack of turning their charm on or off. ­Usually television cameras or members of the public are involved.

Only political staffers, trained to ­obedience and partisan discretion, get to see the full horror of how getting seriously involved in politics can distort the human character. If, that, is, your minister or MP wasn’t a human corkscrew to begin with. But the twisted and the malicious usually make some effort – most go to great lengths, in fact – to present their best face to the world. Most make strenuous efforts to seem agreeable.

Agreeableness is one of those pop-psychological concepts North Americans get excited about. Some psychologists reckon it is one of the so-called “big five” personality traits, combining with traits like conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion to make up a complete personality.

In Scottish culture, we vacillate a bit on whether we like to think of........

© Herald Scotland