Bovine as Metaphor
What are the characteristics of bovines that make that beast such a useful metaphor for understanding the human species?
The bull fight is useful for illumination the easy with which this great powerful beast can be controlled by a simple piece of colored cloth.
A century ago it was the stampeding bovines that were the fearsome possibility for public concern. Jose Ortega y Gasset, in his book “The Revolt of the Massesâ€, considered that the crises of Western culture came in the form of Revolution. Today the crises in Western culture results from the abandonment of that culture by its traditional elites. The traditional elites have abandoned the liberal frame of mind to ‘follow the money’.
While driving though the country side one can observe continuous instances of cows standing, chewing their cud, and staring blankly into the distance.
I think the bovine is such a useful metaphor for understanding the human species because humans seem to often be running with the herd, stampeding, charging a red cape twitched by a manipulator, or vacantly staring into the distance.