The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
28th Proverb
Though he lived in the 18th century, William Blake is a poet for our time. I am meditating on The Proverbs of Hell, from his illuminated work The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, to explore the relationship of poetry to prayer and prophecy.
Why should the fox condemn himself for being caught? No good reason. The fox did not, we assume, set the trap in the first place.
Now, if we were talking about the infamous Reynard, we know he set many traps in his day. His traps typically ensnared others by using their own vanity or greed against them. But, so far as I know, he was never caught in a trap of his own devising.
It’s interesting, this notion of condemnation, which might be framed as “blame.”
The story of Reynard, like most animal stories and parables, uses an animal as a symbol of some human quality: Leo the Lion represents courage; Bruin the Bear, brute strength; and Reynard, cleverness.
And because Reynard is so human, we may be sure he would not accept the blame if he had been caught in a trap of his own devising. If he had been, as we say, too clever by half.
He would be the last to accept blame. And this may be his most human quality, more so than his cleverness.
We are all familiar with the “Not Me” character in The Family Circus daily comic. The children hope to escape blame, and punishment, and claim “Not Me” is the cause of the broken lamp, or other misdemeanor. For, if we accept blame, we logically accept that punishment is a likely consequence. With maturity, we understand that actions have consequences.
We can enlarge this to a nation, and how we relate our history. We might downplay the less admirable parts of our history. Indeed, many states have mandated a history education that downplays slavery and our treatment of the Native Americans, claiming they wish to avoid making our children uncomfortable.
These are uncomfortable parts of our history, and fall far short of America’s ideals. To acknowledge them is to accept there is someone to blame. We might suppose the actions of our ancestors have consequences; that this is a “promissory note” which remains unpaid.
And that we, who still benefit from historic disparities, should rightly pay the price. That we owe more than a hollow apology.
This is why many of us would hide the story, rather than accept the condemnation. These “anti-woke” would blame the feelings rather than their ancestors, or their complicity in current forms of inequity.