Leading from the Middle

“FAREWELL, neighbour!" said a Wolf to a Cuckoo. "In vain have I deluded myself with the idea of finding peace in this spot.
Your people and dogs are all alike here—one worse than the other: even if you were an angel, you couldn't help quarrelling with them."
"And is my neighbour going far? and where is that people so pious that you think you will be able to live in harmony with them?"
"Oh, I am going right away to the forest of the happy Arcadia. There, it is said, they don't know what war is.
The men are as mild as lambs, and the rivers flow with nothing but milk. There, in a word, the Age of Gold is to be found.
Every one treats his neighbour like a brother; and it is even said that the dogs never bark there, much less bite.
Tell me, dear friend, would it not be charming to find oneself, even in a dream, in so peaceful a land as that?
Farewell. Don't retain an unpleasant remembrance of me. There I shall really be able to live in harmony, in plenty, and in indulgence, and not, as here, have to be always on guard by day, and be deprived of one's quiet repose at night."
"A happy journey to you, dear neighbour," says the Cuckoo. "But, tell me, do you leave your teeth and your habits behind you, or do you take them with you? "
"How could I possibly leave them behind me ? What nonsense are you talking ?"
"Then, mark my words! your skin won't remain long on your back there.”

________
Maybe “Vlad the Bad” should dig into his copy of Krylov, the fabled Russian fabulist. Or, maybe he has and thinks he can create his own happy Arcadia where “the men are as mild as lambs, and the rivers flow with nothing but milk.”
After a horrible first world war, giving in, mollifying, appeasing did not work with Hitler. Surely, many dreamed and hoped, a badly defeated Germany would never wage war again.
Sorry, but the Hitlerish wolf had not left his “teeth or his habits behind.”
More recently, modern Germany pushed its own version of the infamous “reset button”, and shrugged off Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014.
Germany’s chancellor and other leaders even tied Germany’s energy wagon to Putin’s red star.
But, as Krylov’s cuckoo notes, the despot wolf had not left his “teeth or his habits behind.”
Such is appeasement, until Ukraine.
We’ll see if our wolf’s skin remains long on his back.

*Source: Krilof and his fables, by Krylov, Ivan Andreevich, 1768-1844; Ralston, William Ralston Shedden, 1828-1889. Tr. London, 1869

_______________
My book, Fables for Leaders, full of Aesopic wisdom, is available. Click on the image and order up!

And, for the worker seeking to understand workplace dynamics including jerk behavior, there’s,
Buy here.


© John Lubans, all commentary, 2023