Overreacting

I was recently intrigued by the expression, "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face." Overreacting can be needlessly self destructive. Apparently the saying had its beginning as early as the 9th century. Wikipedia explains that there are numerous stories of pious women disfiguring themselves in order to protect their virginity.

One such legend is that of Saint Ebba. She was the Mother Superior of the monastery of Coldingham Priory in Scotland. In A.D. 867 news came of Viking pirates raiding nearby villages. She gathered her nuns and urged them to disfigure themselves to appear unappealing to the marauders. The goal was to protect their chastity. She demonstrated this by cutting off her nose and upper lip. Her nuns quickly followed suit. Upon arrival the Vikings were so disgusted that they burned the entire building to the ground with the nuns inside.

Pharaoh's overreaction had similar consequences centuries before. When faced with the threat of Plague #8, locusts, he repeated his first seven reactions to that bad news heralded by Moses and Aaron. After the duo left, the king's servants said to him (Exodus 10:7 MSG), "How long are you going to let this man harass us? Let these people go and worship their God. Can't you see that Egypt is on its last legs?" He refused to listen remaining hard-headed and hard-hearted through those creepy locusts, creepier darkness, and the final blow - death of his son. To save face he managed to lose everything of value in his country including his entire army.

Perhaps you can discover others in history who have made similar blunders. They could all join Pharaoh and Saint Ebba in the Overreaction Hall of Fame.