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October 03, 2004
Classical reference watch
I thought about posting this at the Campus, but I haven't posted here in awhile and the subject seems to be leaning this way. In David Brooks' assessment of the debate there was my friend Kristin's favorite classical reference, Archilochus fr. 201: πόλλ’ οἶδ’ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ’ ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα. "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog one big thing." On second thought maybe that's an archaic reference ... That's all that survives of the fragment. There's no context which means that scholars and many others can do whatever they'd like with it. It's become so popular that Brooks can cite it as a cliche and move on. He cast Bush as the hedgehog (as others have done of Bush and even Reagan) and Kerry as the fox. Traditionally interpreters give the hedgehog the advantage. posted by Dennis on 10.03.04 at 09:15 PM
Comments
Reminds me of the dualism used my Machiavelli and later by Vilfredo Pareto of the foxes (who rule by cunning) and the lions (who rule by force). As I recall, James Burnham invoked that polarity in "The Suicide of the West", arguing that the liberals were the foxes and the conservatives the lions. Steven Malcolm Anderson (Cato the Elder) the Lesbian-worshipping gun-loving selfish aesthete · October 4, 2004 11:40 PM |
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