Krylov’s fable: The Oracle

(This is an experiment using Word to put up a post on my new platform. The text below is one of Krylov’s fables; there are many more at my former blog, along with information on who he was here

So far, WordPress is a maddening experience. Like the IRS, “simple” is a word they do not understand. I have been trying paste a word doc in and it keeps getting rejected even after I have supposedly cleaned it of any hidden tags, etc. Will try again with “Wordable” and with Notepad++. Did not work!

Finally, after a few hours and less hair, I was able to install Classic editor which is similar to what I was using on Nucleus, the deteriorating platform I used- happily and productively – for 15 years. We will see.

Krylov statue, St. Petersburg, Summer Garden

NOW FOR THE FABLE: In a certain temple there was a wooden idol which began to utter prophetic answers, and to give wise counsels.

Accordingly, it rejoiced in a very rich attire, being covered from top to toe with gold and silver; and was gorged with sacrifices, deafened by prayers, and choked with incense.

Every one believed blindly in the Oracle.

All of a sudden—wonderful to relate!—the Oracle began to talk nonsense—took to answering incoherently and absurdly, so that, if any one consulted it about anything, whatever our Oracle said was a lie; so that every one wondered what had become of its prophetic faculty.

The fact was, that the idol was hollow, and the priests used to sit in it in order to reply to the laity; and so, as long as the priest was discreet, the idol did not talk nonsense; but when a fool took to sitting in it, the idol became a mere dummy. I have heard—can it be true?—that in days gone by there used to be judges who were renowned for ability—so long as they kept an able secretary.

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Normally, I would add my take on this fable and of its relevance to leadership in the workplace (I’d spend a little time on Krylov’s allusion to the importance of an “able secretary” to one’s image)

But this is a test.

Here is what I had to say back in 2023 – in the midst of “covid times” – much like “Soviet Times”.

Drollery is what Krylov practiced during his time (1789-1844) in Czarist Russia. Somehow, he was able to elude punishment for his gentle, tongue-in-cheek criticism of the royals and their corrupt bureaucracies. I doubt he would have been tolerated by Stalin or Putin.

In 2023, I had a momentary hope of visiting in person via a Helsinki ferry the above statue (depicted). Doing so, I realized, would be supremely stupid  – a dual citizen of Latvia and the USA – to put a foot across the Russian border while Russia wages war in Ukraine and is ever on the lookout for hostages.

*Krylov’s Fable Source at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Krilof_and_His_Fables/The_Oracl

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And for my book of fables tied to leadership and the workplace, a 25% discount to celebrate the blog’s move to a new platform: Link HERE to BUY

 

And, my book on democratic workplaces and what leaders can do with limited resources and unlimited imagination, Leading from the Middle, is available at Amazon.</a>

Copyright all text John Lubans 2023 and 2025