{"id":491,"date":"2026-02-18T10:05:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/?p=491"},"modified":"2026-02-19T10:49:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:49:49","slug":"a-gotthold-ephraim-lessing-fable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/a-gotthold-ephraim-lessing-fable\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Fable*"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/sub>\u201c<\/sub>A HEN who had lost her sight, and was accustomed to scratching up the earth in search of food, although blind, still continued to scratch away most diligently. <\/sub>Of what use was it to the industrious fool?<\/sub><\/p>\n

Another sharp-sighted hen who spared her tender feet, never budged from her side, and enjoyed, without scratching, the fruit of the other’s labour.<\/sub><\/p>\n

For as often as the Blind Hen scratched up a barleycorn, her watchful companion devoured it.<\/sub>\u201d<\/sub><\/p>\n

_________<\/sub><\/strong><\/p>\n

Is <\/sub>Lessing<\/sub> – <\/sub>the German dramatist, critic, and writer on philosophy and aesthetics<\/sub> (1729-1781) – <\/sub>suggesting<\/sub>, in this fable,<\/sub> that the <\/sub>deceitful<\/sub> hen is right in<\/sub> taking advantage of<\/sub> her<\/sub> blind <\/sub>companion<\/sub>? <\/sub>W<\/sub>ould <\/sub>he <\/sub>extend this exploitation to humans?<\/sub><\/p>\n

For Lessing, the blind hen is an \u201cindustrious fool\u201d; and what of the \u201csharp sighted\u201d hen? <\/sub>An enterprising fowl. The able taking advantage of the disabled. <\/sub>Or, worse, not only taking advantage but speeding up the blind hen\u2019s <\/sub>famine<\/sub>.<\/sub><\/p>\n

With a bit of kindness \u2013 also known in evolutionary science as cooperation and collaboration \u2013 these two could become a tag team, sharing what\u2019s found. <\/sub>My blogs on Tom the Turkey \u00a0<\/a><\/sub>and Henny Penny <\/a><\/sub>depict the animal world\u2019s pecking orders.<\/sub><\/p>\n

We like to think humans are above this dog-eat-dog mindset, but, each of us probably can identify how some humans are not far removed from animal level cruelty. <\/sub>Routinely, the <\/sub>\u201c<\/sub>anti-social media<\/sub>\u201d<\/sub> erupts with <\/sub>hissy fits<\/sub>.<\/sub><\/p>\n

My recent blog on the bumptious among us,<\/a> offers some explanations of how we get that way.<\/sub><\/p>\n

Social pathologues, while few in number, despise those with different<\/sub> perspectives <\/sub>and willingly seek to stifle and persecute th<\/sub>ose they deem <\/sub>unredeemable.<\/sub><\/p>\n

Fortunately, many more humans tend to cooperate<\/sub> \u00a0and to exhibit kindness and fairness.<\/sub><\/p>\n

P.S.
\nLessing\u2019s fable brings to mind a couple workplace scenarios.
\nOne is of someone, like the \u201csharp-sighted hen who spared her tender feet\u201d, who followed in the footsteps of a diligent predecessor.
\nThat previous incumbent had done good work, but had lost the support of a new administration. He\u2019d been sidelined in a shabby manner.
\nThe new comer benefited from the previous leader\u2019s actions; even so, he never acknowledged the good foundation.
\nAnother example is that of a department head who made major improvements in the work of his unit but ruffled the feathers of vested interests.
\nThe department head soon found himself on the outside looking in since new leadership had little interest in past achievements and had been swayed by the grievances of those with the ruffled feathers. His improvements stayed, but the department head did not.
\nI include these two stories to illustrate how fables can trigger discussion on work place ethics and how we treat each other.
\nBut, for a fable to do that, the reader has to think.
\nWhen I was leading workshops, those that had thinking participants did well, those that did not were not much fun.
\nThe latter often had participants who came to be entertained or who saw the workshop as a free day.
\nI never figured out what to do with those unhappy participants.<\/p>\n

*SOURCE: Lessing, <\/sub><\/strong>\u201cThe Blind Hen\u201d in <\/sub>Fables, Book I, No. 30. Translated by G. Moir Bussey. <\/sub>Excerpted From: Cooper, Frederic Taber, 1864-1937. \u201cAn argosy of fables; a representative selection from the fable literature of every age and land.\u201d New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. 1921.<\/sub><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sub>N.B. For other essays<\/strong> on numerous topics on leadership and literature and fables go to my Nucleus archive<\/a> from 2010-early 2025.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright commentary by John Lubans 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201cA HEN who had lost her sight, and was accustomed to scratching up the earth in search of food, although blind, still continued to scratch away most diligently. Of what use was it to the industrious fool? Another sharp-sighted hen who spared her tender feet, never budged from her side, and enjoyed, without scratching, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Lessing's The Blind Hen\r\n","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44,69,97,78,45,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ck-factor-courtesy-and-kindness","category-collaboration","category-exploitation","category-henny-penny","category-intolerance","category-lessing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/465071552_8965135383508774_2929376532704498917_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":497,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lubans.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}