wag the dog

THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Any case where something of greater significance is driven by something lesser.

Wikipedia says:

“…is taken from the joke: “Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the dog.” Interpretations differ as to the meaning of this metaphor. Some suggest the dog is public opinion, and the tail represents the media; the dog is the media, and the tail is political campaigns; or the dog is the people, and the tail is the government…”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

While perusing the opinion section of the newspaper, news site, or any of the plethora of political blogs out there on the innerwebs, you will often see the term “Wagging the Dog” being bandied about. It aptly describes any number of political, economic and social situations going on currently and, I suppose, in the past as well.

It’s no secret that the U.S. (and the world) is in the midst of one historical, whopper of a economic crisis. However, because of this and so many other issues of grave concern in my country, it seems to me that recently, more and more of “the dog” (we the people) are becoming increasingly aware and active politically. We’re paying attention, speaking up, writing our representatives, consuming more wisely and some even starting grass roots movements. I feel, if more of us jump on that bandwagon and if we continue in this vein, we may just curtail our “tail” (the government) from wagging us and get it back on our butts where it belongs, serving us… and, of course, eventually as an indicator of how content we are. Like a good tail should.

Of course, this is just my humble opinion.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Illustration Friday theme “Opinion.”

I posted this sketch about a year ago. Seemed great for the theme, so I colorized it in Photoshop and threw it back in the ring, along with an opinion.

Advertisement