日韩精品久久一区二区三区_亚洲色图p_亚洲综合在线最大成人_国产中出在线观看_日韩免费_亚洲综合在线一区

您現在的位置: Language Tips> Columnist> Zhang Xin  
 





 
Tail wags dog?
[ 2008-03-28 10:28 ]


Reader question:

In this quote – "No player is above the team. You run into a lot of problems when the tail wags the dog" – what does "the tail wags the dog" mean?

My comments:

What the quoted lines mean to convey is the idea that players should cater to team interests instead of the other way around, or problems arise. Obviously a team has a lot of players each with their own individuality. If players all follow team rules, then you have a team and order. If the team tries to cater to each player's idiosyncrasies, well, chaos ensues.

We all know that dogs wag their tails. Tails can't wag dogs. Dogs wagging tails is the normal order of things and events. Hence, when "the tail wags the dog", things are out of order.

"The tail wags the dog" is an American idiom, usually referring to the manipulation of a chain of events in order to divert attention from another – more important – chain of events.

I once watched "Wag the Dog", a movie starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman. It begins with these words: "Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail is smarter, the tail would wag the dog."

You get the picture. In fact, that movie presents a perfect case of the tail wagging the dog. In it, political advisers to the administration forge a case for war against Albania, of all places. Horrific pictures and so forth whip up public euphoria which eventually leads to military intervention.

Only to divert public attention from a sex scandal involving the President, of all people. Ring a bell? Well, some people thought Bill Clinton might have "wagged the dog" in his time as President letting NATO bomb Kosovo. Wag the Dog the film might have helped spawn that theory. It has certainly helped popularize the phrase.

As demonstrated in the movie, the White House spin doctors are able to manipulate the media because they understand what makes the American public, er, lick. They feed the public something tasty to hold onto while they get on with their own business, whatever that is. Like, there's a guard dog on duty in front of a house. A burglar can not get in without risking suffering dog bites. But a well-trained burglar who brings a bone with him might be able to get in without a fuss from the dog, that is, if the dog is less than well trained. The burglar understands that dogs love to chew on bones and so he hands the dog a bone to play with while he goes about his business, scot-free.

Enough dogs and politics. Here are media examples for you to see more of this phrase in action.

1. 'Wag the Dog' Back In Spotlight

A president embroiled in a sex scandal in the Oval Office tries to save his presidency by distracting the nation with a made-for-TV war far from American soil in an obscure country.

It's not the latest news out of Washington, but the plot of the movie "Wag the Dog." In the 1997 movie, a shadowy spin doctor played by Robert De Niro recruits a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) to invent a war against Albania.

The film came out just before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke – and no doubt benefited at the box office and then at the video store from the publicity. Now, the film is all the buzz again because of President Clinton's announcement – three days after admitting for the first time an inappropriate relationship with Ms. Lewinsky – that he ordered military strikes in two countries.

- CNN.com, August 21, 1998.

2. Jewish Liberals Say The Dog Wags the Tail (I Say the Tail Wags the Dog)

Doni Remba, a peace activist, disputes my claim that the progressive voice in Jewish life has been marginalized by the neocons. He has some evidence: he says he's getting traction in the Jewish press for his view that there has to be a progressive lobby, to push for a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine. His post follows, below.

I have one important quibble, ahead of time. Remba reflects the conventional leftish pro-Israel view that the dog wags the tail. i.e., that Israel is a client that does as the imperial U.S. wants it to do. The U.S. doesn't want Israel to talk to Syria; so it doesn't. His view of the Israel lobby is that it is merely seconding rightwing choices that the U.S. government is making. And so he says:

American choices heavily constrain the Jewish state, eliminating options and creating the environment in which Israel must make its own now far more limited and difficult choices.

- New York Observer, January 30, 2007    

我要看更多專欄文章

 

About the author:
 

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: [email protected], or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

 
 
相關文章 Related Stories
 

 

 

 
 

本頻道最新推薦

     
  “尾巴搖狗”會怎樣?
  A response to readers' comments
  美人痣?風景區?
  Water cooler
  'Jianti' and 'fanti' are equally good

論壇熱貼

     
  "文化名人“該怎么譯
  “網上辦公管理系統”怎么說?
  中端市場
  “牛B”英語怎么翻譯?。?/a>
  一副“你奈何不了我的神態?
  thoughts from my life




主站蜘蛛池模板: 久久91精品| 黄色av网站在线观看 | 日韩欧美一区二区三区四区 | 精品视频在线观看视频免费视频 | 国产精品精品 | 性一级录像片片视频免费看 | www.亚洲在线| 日韩久草| 成人免费淫片aa视频免费 | 亚洲国产精品a一区 | 欧美成人免费网站 | 亚洲综合一二三区 | 看片国产 | 久久狠狠色狠狠色综合 | 日韩在线欧美 | 日韩国产精品一区二区三区 | 九九色影院 | 99热在线免费 | 国产午夜一区二区在线观看 | 日本在线观看视频网站 | 国产激情偷乱视频一区二区三区 | 亚洲在线影院 | 波多久久夜色精品国产 | 精品免费 | 欧美色综合天天久久综合精品 | 综合久久亚洲 | 极品xxxx欧美一区二区 | 亚洲综合无码一区二区 | 四虎av电影| 在线中文字幕亚洲 | 91精品国产免费久久久久久 | 国产精品99久久久久久久女警 | 九色九色久综色鬼在线 | 亚洲日本高清成人aⅴ片 | 日韩 欧美 中文 | 久久成人一区 | 91短视频在线观看 | 日韩精品免费视频 | 国产精品久久福利新婚之夜 | 天天干天天操天天爽 | 天天做天天爽 |