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Boiled Frogs and the Long Arc of History (squashed.tumblr.com)
2 points by blasdel on Sept 25, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments


I'm going to completely ignore the political rhetoric that seems to be driving this, and wonder aloud myself - is there another analogy to replace the slanderous misrepresentation of a jacuzzi-bound frog?

Working on it right now ... watch for updates!

Edit: There's a reasonably well-known poem by Martin Niemöller - "First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out for I was not a communist etc". Seems to convey the same concern regarding a creeping threat, though without the solid visual of a frog. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...

Edit 2: Spent some time rolling through options - a car that needs regular servicing, because incremental wear and tear will stop it; a fish in a pond that begins drying up, not leaving until it's too late to escape; even comparisons to compound interest or the 'one cigarette won't kill me' school of thought.

Then I realised I'd been sucked in by the assertion that a comparison didn't exist - when one does.

It's the Turkey that doesn't have an appetite off switch - if you keep putting food in front of it, it will keep eating until it dies.

Seems a relevant analogy. Now whether its true is a subject to research.


See James Fallows's post Once and for all with the frogs

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/09/once_an...

for a great kitty litter box analogy...


The boiling frog story is true. http://books.google.com/books?id=Hr0aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA299&#...

The modern researchers who "debunked" it simply heated up the water too quickly.




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