(from Atlanta. GA)
Hello dear Readers. Thank you for the fascinating perspectives you shared on FC #139.
Tarun Kunzru makes very interesting Comments: “Intelligence as in ‘intellect’ is large and pre-loaded. One can polish it and make it sharper. While IQ is important in the commercial world, EQ is equally important. Domain knowledge is now extensively available. The key is how you use it to influence for the better. Our education system is 80% knowledge and 20% what you do with it. In the commercial world, it's 80% of what you do with it. This is the disconnect. Having said that, our education system does teach us to be diligent. That is why I feel, ‘hard skills’ give ‘soft money’ and ‘soft skills’ give ‘hard money’. A business leader makes more money than a technician. A creative person's value is hard to gauge and therefore could charge a premium. In other words, God's/nature's talent always wins. What can't be taught is always at a premium. So while I give diligence its due, intelligence is an inherent advantage.”
Prof.Shashi Mohanty observes: “Diligence and intelligence, either one without the other, or in combination with the other, is desirable but they are worth nothing without a purpose. Some of the greatest criminals as well as the most dreaded dictators are high both on intelligence as well as diligence. Let us look forward to having all the young men and women gifted with diligence and intelligence to bring in societal change.”
Lakshmi Raman Says: “I enjoyed today's Filter Coffee, as I do all of them. It appears that distance does not wither nor custom stale the sharpness of your mind! I liked the nice distinction you make between intelligence and diligence and how one is not independent of the other for meaningful engagement. It reminds me of that other distinction - that skills are the capacities we acquire to do something, but competency is how you deploy those skills to the best effect.”
🐐 The Fall Guy
Now, why did I hit upon this topic? Atlanta saw the end of Fall in January and is now savouring the splendour of Spring. So, with a spring in my step, I set out for a long walk towards the Avalon Mall, in Alpharetta, where my son and family live. I walked briskly along the footpath (in the USA it is referred to as sidewalk and in the UK it is referred to as pavement).
As we all know, in India, in most cities, footpaths are becoming either food stalls or part of Tender SURE, the first set of guidelines for urban road design and redevelopment. S.U.R.E stands for Specifications for Urban Roads Execution. In Bangalore, the prominent feature of this project is the creation of decent footpaths which are mostly used by errant motorbike riders who see red when they are hemmed in by traffic and try to weave and squeeze their way to the front.
Sorry for digressing from my original question about the topic. Well, as I walked briskly I stubbed my toe against a slightly raised slab of concrete on the sidewalk and I fell, bruising my right knee. Unlike in India, where some of the many pedestrians would rush to help a person get on his feet, there was none around me and the drivers of countless cars that whizzed past could not have noticed me sitting in a daze. I recovered soon, found my spectacles and slowly got up to make sure I had not broken any bones. With my badly scraped and bleeding knee I found my way home and my very efficient daughter-in-law dressed the wound.
As I write this, all is well but I’m still bruise Lee (yuck, Dad Joke). When I relive those moments when the spring in my foot lead to my fall and brought me to my knees, I realised that the City Council ought to have ensured that the slabs were laid on the level and not raised to trip an unsuspecting walker like me and make me the fall guy. I wondered if I could sue the City Council but then discarded the idea when I was told that my fall would be a windfall for some local lawyer. Arun, one of my readers did say in jest that since the slab tripped me I had concrete evidence. Ha Ha! Arun is my sister-in-law’s husband and in Kannada parlance, he is my co-brother, cobra in short, and he couldn’t resist the stinger😀
Let me get back to the topic. A fall guy is someone who has been set up to be the guy at fault and who ends up taking the blame. A fall guy can also be the person who gets punished or even sentenced to imprisonment. You may recall the instance of a celebrity reported to be driving the car when the fatal accident took place and his driver, who was not at the wheel, taking the blame for it.
Can a fall guy be a scapegoat? What is the origin of this term? The biblical allusion to this term stems from the practice of sacrificing one goat as an atonement for the wrongs committed and the second goat allowed to escape into the wilderness as the carrier of all the sins. The word ‘escape goat’ seems to have morphed into today’s ‘scapegoat’. If you wish to read more please use this link The origins of the 'scapegoat' | Jewish History & Culture.
The phrase 'scapegoat' is used to indicate that someone is being made to take the blame for something. To that extent, this phrase is synonymous with the phrase ‘fall guy’. But there is a ‘scapegoat theory’’ which was developed by Rene Girard, who was born in the early 20th century, in southeastern France. He was a well-known historian and philosopher, particularly in the social science field. The theory points to the practice of people who have suffered a failure or ignominy blaming it on someone who is usually a meek or defenceless person. The theory also extends to venting one’s anger. Like a boss who has been hauled up by the Board of Directors for some wrongdoing and lays the blame at the door of his executives.
You may have come across situations when someone has told you “I shouldn't have listened to you” or “ you made me look silly” or words to that effect. This is the scapegoat theory in play. The consequences of being a fall guy or being made a scapegoat can vary from situation to situation depending on whether it is just a blame game or shifting culpability onto someone who is either subservient or who is incentivised to accept the blame.
Yet another phrase that is similar to scapegoat is ‘whipping boy’, a person who is blamed or punished for the faults or incompetence of others. It is said that in the old days, they used to keep a boy to be whipped in place of a young prince who deserved to be punished.
According to Grammarist.com, a whipping boy is a person who is blamed and/or punished for the failings of others — a fall guy or a scapegoat. Whipping boy was an official position in the English royal court during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A high-born boy was chosen to be the companion to a royal prince, he was educated with the prince and received many of the privileges of royalty. However, if the prince committed a transgression, the whipping boy was punished in his stead. The philosophy was that if a prince saw his friend punished for infractions that he, the prince, had committed, the prince would suffer greatly and be sure to behave. A commoner such as a tutor could not lay a hand on a royal prince, whose position was supposedly ordained by God. The use of a whipping boy solved this problem.
There is also a story called Whipping boy by Sid Fleischman. It tells of Prince Horace, also called Prince Brat, who often misbehaves on purpose in order to see his whipping boy, Jemmy, get punished. You can read the book using this link: 🔗Reading Through History: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (1986)
There’s a nice song penned by Elton John under the same name, and you can enjoy it using this link: 🔗Elton John - Whipping Boy (1983) With Lyrics!
Closer home, there is a fable about a monkey eating up the food of its keeper and smearing some of it on the face of the goat who gets thrashed by the keeper. A real scapegoat!!
By the way, April 01 is a day for pulling someone’s leg and a kind of making someone a scapegoat in a humorous way. Please read FC #41.
Dear Readers, please take as much care as you can to protect yourself from the variant. Stay safe. See you next week. Ciao.
So glad you are ok and disappointed that know one came to your aid.
We are all too familiar with fall guys as today many have been convicted as a fall guy for Trump while he continues his Teflon effect. Perhaps his days are numbered now though.
Prasanna uncle we are thankful to God that the fall did not lead to any major damage. Please take good care of yourself.
The moral of the story is that the concrete is not concrete enough even in the USA!
This reminded me of my accident in Delhi and how you came to our rescue with all the assistance you could offer. Important that you slowly increase your activities from hereon.