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The North Wind And The Sun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_North_Wind_and_the_Sun
The North Wind and the Sun is one of Aesop's Fables (Perry Index 46). It is type 298 (Wind and Sun) in the Aarne-Thompson folktale classification.[1] The moral it teaches about the superiority of persuasion over force has made the story widely known. It is also known for being a chosen text for phonetic transcriptions.
The story concerns a competition between the North wind and the Sun to decide which is the stronger of the two. The challenge was to make a passing traveler remove his cloak. However hard the North Wind blew, the traveler only wrapped his cloak tighter to keep warm, but when the Sun shone, the traveler was overcome with heat and soon took his cloak off.
(snip)
Victorian versions give the moral as "Persuasion is better than force", but it has been put in different ways at other times. In the Barlow edition of 1667, Aphra Behn teaches the Stoic lesson that there should be moderation in everything: "In every passion moderation choose,/For all extremes do bad effects produce",[4] while La Fontaine's conclusion is that "Gentleness does more than violence" (Fables VI.3). In the 18th century, Herder comes to the theological conclusion that, while superior force leaves us cold, the warmth of Christ's love dispels it,[5] and Walter Crane's limerick version of 1887 gives a psychological interpretation, "True strength is not bluster". Most of these examples draw a moral lesson, but La Fontaine hints at the political application that is present also in Avianus' conclusion: "They cannot win who start with threats". There is evidence that this reading has had an explicit influence on the diplomacy of modern times: in South Korea's Sunshine Policy, for instance, or Japanese relations with the military regime in Burma.[6]
4 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Sometimes we let our alligator mouths outrun our mosquito butts...
I don't believe *anyone likes being told what to do, the art of persuasion is vastly underrated.
*With the exception being, of those people that prefer getting spanked during sex.
