The Tail that Wags the Dog

“The tail that wags the dog.”

Now, there’s an interesting turn of phrase! This one’s a bit more easy to understand to our modern ears than four score or red herring, for instance. It describes how a small part of something can actually start to control the entire thing, sort of like if a tail began to wag a dog, instead of the other way around.

This metaphor leads us naturally to the story of Benjamin Franklin once again.

Long before his pivotal role in the American Revolution, Franklin was using the power of the press in a way that would set a precedent for the influential role of media in shaping public discourse and opinion.

Franklin’s journey with the printing press began at an early age. At the age of 12 he became an apprentice to his brother James, who ran a printing shop in Boston.

Now, I majored in painting and printmaking back in art school. I had little interest in printmaking at first, but I gained a very healthy respect for how difficult the work can be. Rolling a carefully prepared plate or stone through a press isn’t just a lot of physical work, but it represents a moment when even more work could be lost in an instant.

Suffice it to say, if Franklin was doing this every day, he was probably pretty strong, and he he was also probably very patient.

However, the art itself was only part of what young Ben Franklin was learning. He saw how the news articles and opinion pieces they were publishing in The New-England Courant could ignite discussions, influence perspectives, and even alter the course of day-to-day conversations among Boston’s residents.

This observation was crucial; it planted the seed of understanding in Franklin's mind about the significant role media could play in shaping public opinion.

By the time he left Boston and eventually settled in Philadelphia, Franklin had not only honed his skills as a printer but had also developed a deep understanding of the intricate relationship between printed media and human behavior.

In Philadelphia, he took over the publication of The Pennsylvania Gazette, which under his stewardship, became one of the most influential newspapers in the colonies. Here, Franklin began to feel comfortable enough in his own skin to actively experiment with influencing public discourse and politics.

If Franklin had something to say that was likely to ruffle some feathers, he would often use a pseudonym like “Silence Dogood” to get his point across. In this way, he sort of snuck his view into the public discourse in a manner that I find both ingenious and disingenuous.

Scathing satire was balanced with playful commentary, giving Franklin license to engage with the most sensitive political and social issues of the day, all without alienating his readership.

As Franklin's influence grew, so did his boldness in using the press for political ends. His ability to sway public opinion became particularly evident in the years leading up to the American Revolution. Through carefully crafted editorials and pointed satires, Franklin began to shape the American narrative, steering public sentiment towards the idea of independence.

Over his lifetime, Franklin’s influence became the tail wagging the dog of American sentiment.

The slogan itself—the tail that wags the dog—hearkens back to at least 1858, when a play called Our American Cousin contained this line:

A dog wags his tail because his tail is stronger than he is. If his tail was stronger than he is, he would wag his tail.

It wasn’t long before the phrase was used in print as a metaphor, and “tail that wags the dog” appeared in print in the Daily Cleveland Herald in 1871, in an article discussing the financial situation of that time.

Most recently, the 1997 movie Wag the Dog revitalized the phrase, much as Dog Day Afternoon did for “dog days” during the 70s.

Throughout his lifetime, Benjamin Franklin's mastery of the printed word and keen understanding of public sentiment allowed him to become a pivotal figure in shaping American history. Just like the metaphorical tail that wags the dog, Franklin's seemingly small role as a printer and publisher had a profound and far-reaching impact, steering the American narrative towards independence, and the world toward democratic discourse.

What are some modern examples you can think of where the “tail is wagging the dog”? How do small actions or entities influence larger systems in our current world?