Know Jack #470 Belling the Cat

In a medieval fable, a group of mice plagued by a cat get together to discuss a solution to their problem. One of them puts forward the idea of hanging a bell around the cat's neck to warn of its approach. All the mice are for the idea and give it a rousing cheer.

The cheering lasts until it’s time for one of them to step forward and volunteer to bell the cat. No one volunteers, every single one has an excuse why it cannot be him.

In a real-life twist on the fable, I know of an idealist who is attracted to tilting at windmills. He doesn’t let the slim chance of success deter him from a job that needs to be done. After all, right is right. To him, to try to do right and fail is preferable to inaction; to raise a voice is preferred to silence.

The character John McClane in the Die Hard movies is a lot like our idealist. The difference is McClane has time and circumstance thrust the problem upon him while our idealist seems to seek out such situations. When his co-workers want a raise, he’s the one who goes alone to ask the big boss. Whenever there’s an unpleasant job, whenever the one who speaks up will be disliked by all—our idealist is there.

The strange thing is, though our fable does say so, when the job is somehow accomplished, the mice are always unhappy with the solution they once cheered. The ribbon on the bell is the wrong color, the pitch of the bell is too high or too low, it wakes people up at night, it makes the cat angry the list goes on and on. Of course, the fault does not lie with the planning committee but with one who dared to do the job.

The moral of this twisted fairy tale is not the same as the original’s warning of ideal versus feasibility. The moral here is that idealists are useful in a pinch but be careful what you ask for, they might deliver it.

Idealists, as the title implies, are all about ideals. They are indifferent to feasibility and are a thick-skinned, pushy sort of person. Beware engaging them in conversation.