"Dancing to the tune of others": the meaning of phraseology and interpretation

Consider the meaning of phraseology "dance to the tune of others." We learn the meaning, origin and give an example. We will say right away that conformists are rarely respected by others, but sometimes conclusions are too hasty. We will examine the issue in detail.

Origin

to dance to the tune of someone else the meaning of phraseology

It is known that most phraseological units come either from a folk life or from the Bible, but our today's hero is more likely to be an exception to this series. Expression we owe Herodotus. During bizarre transformations, an ancient legend became phraseologism. What is the legend? The flutist wanted to captivate the fish and make them dance to his tune. But the fish did not obey. Then the flutist abandoned his shamanism and decided to use the usual net. Catching the fish, he saw them “dancing” in the nets. Looking at them, a successful fisherman, but an unsuccessful musician, said that the performance was belated and it was necessary to respond to the pipe when he played it. According to legend, King Cyrus told her, composed Aesop, and saved for posterity, as already mentioned, Herodotus. The history of occurrence is passed, the next step is the meaning of phraseology “to dance to the tune of others”.

Value

It is not difficult to solve the meaning of a stable expression: this is what they say about a person who is a conductor of someone else's desires or will, sings from someone else's voice. Naturally, society does not approve of such behavior, but conformists, servants of the bosses as much as they like. That is, on the one hand, no one approves, and on the other, many follow. The reader may be surprised and ask: “But what, they do not understand the meaning of phraseology“ to dance to someone else’s tune ”?” This question is always very complicated. Typically, people who profess conformism are cleverly able to persuade themselves. Sometimes deception is conscious, and sometimes unconscious. Sometimes a person does someone else's will for security reasons. For example, if you are on the staff of some manic boss, who believes that if someone does not laugh at his jokes, then he is plotting evil.

Don Corleone and expression

dance to the tune of someone else which means

The steady speech turn “dancing to the tune of others” (which means we have already examined) is found in the film “The Godfather” (1972). Toward the end of the picture, Vito Corleone, who has already retired, instructs Michael. The subject of discussion is the possible elimination of the young don. When the main details have already been discussed, the father falls into a nostalgic mood and mentions, among other things, that he never danced to the tune of others and refused to make a fool of himself.

For some reason, the association recalls the concept of social justice, the essence of which is that the higher a person rises in the social hierarchy, the fairer the world seems to him. The reader may ask how the meaning of phraseology “to dance to someone else’s tune” and reasoning about the social world order is connected, everything is very simple: being a nonconformist (a person who does not fulfill someone else’s will) can either be a marginal person or a person of a very high social position. Don Vito Corleone cannot be classified as a marginal. This is all to the fact that if you see a conformist, you should not strictly judge him immediately, maybe he just did not find another way to adapt to the world.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/C14703/


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