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People seem to forget that the moral of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is that the wolf does finally come. It's not "don't panic prematurely because people will stop
by nicwolff 3y ago
People seem to forget that the moral of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is that the wolf does finally come. It's not "don't panic prematurely because people will stop listening to you"; it's "don't disbelieve real hazards even after repeated false alarms".
- ErikHuisman 3y agoI dont think either of these explanations is the moral of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" :)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- swayvil 3y agoWhat's the moral then?
- AlbertCory 3y agoIf I can jump in here: it's something like "be very careful when making extreme claims, because they probably won't be believed. If your claims turn out to be false, then they really won't be believed next time." So it's about trust and reputation. If the village elder, whom everyone trusts, cried "wolf!" the villagers would be inclined to believe him.
- swayvil 3y agoThat means the same as what he said.
- nh23423fefe 3y agoNo. nicwolff said the moral was about villagers and their skepticism. AlbertCory correctly said the moral is how lying damages the boy's reputation. The moral to the listener is to not be like the boy. The moral is not, to be unlike the villagers.
- phailhaus 3y agoNo, because the lesson is that the boy shouldn't have lied. It's not "the village should have believed him again".
- AlbertCory 3y agono it doesn't. See the other replies.
- arolihas 3y agoDon't lie so people can trust you.
- nomagicbullet 3y agoIf you keep lying or making false alarms, people won't believe you when you're actually in trouble. So, it's better to tell the truth and be trustworthy, or you'll end up losing the trust of others when you really need it. TL;DR: Don't lie, or trust will be lost.
- idopmstuff 3y agoI think the moral is about the boy, not the villagers and what they believe - it's that reputation is an important thing, because once you damage yours, you won't be able to use it even when you really need it.
- swayvil 3y agoI too am on that page
- sebzim4500 3y agoDon't have a small child be responsible for protecting your sheep from wolves? Esepcially if you have already determined not to come if he shouts for help.
- garciansmith 3y agoThat you should never tell the same lie twice.
- flangola7 3y ago"There were 1,000,000 different doom-prophets in this civilization. 1 of them knew what she was talking about. The people mocked the doom-prophets. Doom-mocking was a safe career, 99.9999% of the time they were correct. Ruin came for them all the same."
- bnralt 3y agoPeople making doomsday predictions are always going to claim that _their_ prediction is the “real hazard” unlike all those other guys. Of course we should dismiss everyone else’s doomsday claims, those are just silly; but it would be a horrible folly to dismiss mine.
- NumberWangMan 3y agoYep, and dismissing doomsday claims on this basis is a heuristic that almost always works.