Bell the cat

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"Belling the cat" or "to bell the cat" is an English colloquialism that means to suggest or attempt to perform a difficult or impossible task.[1] The phrase comes from the Aesop's Fable The Mice in Council, in which a group of mice declare that the only way to avoid the dangerous cat is to tie a bell around its neck in order to give warning whenever it is near. One mouse then asks who will perform the dangerous task. The moral of the story, as commonly given, is that it is easy to suggest difficult (or impossible) solutions if the individual giving the solution is not the one who has to implement it.

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[edit] Etymology

The phrase comes from Aesop's fable The Mice in Council:

LONG ago, the mice had a general council to consider what measures they could take to outwit their common enemy, the Cat. Some said this, and some said that; but at last a young mouse got up and said he had a proposal to make, which he thought would meet the case. “You will all agree,” said he, “that our chief danger consists in the sly and treacherous manner in which the enemy approaches us. Now, if we could receive some signal of her approach, we could easily escape from her. I venture, therefore, to propose that a small bell be procured, and attached by a ribbon round the neck of the Cat. By this means we should always know when she was about, and could easily retire while she was in the neighbourhood.” This proposal met with general applause, until an old mouse got up and said: “That is all very well, but who is to bell the Cat?” The mice looked at one another and nobody spoke. Then the old mouse said: “IT IS EASY TO PROPOSE IMPOSSIBLE REMEDIES.”[2]

[edit] Alternative interpretations

Some scholars have suggested an alternative message to the fable beyond the standard message that "it is easy to propose impossible remedies." They hypothesize that Aesop is not discouraging utopian thought, but rather that he is suggesting that an individual willing to suggest a difficult solution must also be willing to pay the price that the solution details. According to the theory, belling the cat may be an appropriate solution for the mice if the long-term gain outweighs the mice that would be killed by the cat while attempting to put a bell around its neck. This analogy has been applied to joining the military, police department, or fire department.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "To Bell the Cat" thefreedictionary.com. Accessed November 9, 2007.
  2. ^ Æsop. Fables, retold by Joseph Jacobs. Vol. XVII, Part 1. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/17/1/.
  3. ^ "Belling the Cat" Jeff Edwards, Military.com, June 23, 2005. Accessed November 9, 2007.

[edit] Belling Cats as a Practical Matter

Placing a small bell on the collar of a cat does reduce that cat's predatory efficiency. While mice and birds may not be equal to this task, Human pet-owners usually are.