Strength

✦ Strength; Compassion; Understanding; Courage

✦ Defiance. Protection. Strength.

A figure stands near a massive coiled snake, her small frame standing upright for a creature that cannot do so itself.

✦ Misunderstanding

The snake can be seen as menacing and dangerous, long a symbol of evil and distrust, though the figure knows the truth: it is not dangerous in its nature, merely misunderstood and loathed by those who lack the knowledge, projecting their fears onto its menacing appearance. It is scarred, and small arrows pepper its skin. She puts herself between the onslaught and the victim.

✦ True Strength

True strength lies not in aggression when faced with fear, but the time and effort necessary to understand the 'other.'

✦ Symbol of Peace

The figure extends an olive branch, symbolic of peace, that rains gold upon the snake, and in her other hand snaps a handful of arrows, again standing in defiance of those who want to harm the apparent beast. This is conviction in the face of opposition.

✦ Additional Artwork

To the left and right of the figure stand many spears and halberds, though 3 on each side rise higher than the rest. They recall the Asch Conformity Test.

✦ Asch Conformity Test

In this test, a participant is shown a card with 3 bars on it: a short, medium, and long, labeled A, B, and C. They are then given another card with a single bar and asked which of the first bars match it. When tested alone, the answer is obvious and the participant nearly always chooses correctly. However, when tested in the presence of peers (who are all actually actors paid to answer incorrectly), the participant is 37% likely to choose the incorrect answer. Some who answered incorrectly truly believed the majority opinion was correct, while others knew they were incorrect, though chose not to oppose majority views.