Talk:Allegory of the long spoons

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Dear Editor, Please feel encouraged to be free to edit the article, and be bold. If your additions require re-phrasing, then please note it is because of the Wikipedia policies below and not a reflection on your contribution - please do not be offended if your additions are changed. Many thanks. VisitingPhilosopher (talk) 21:52, 17 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Policies adhered to: WP:HOWTO WP:VER WP:NPOV WP:N WP:NEO WP:SYN WP:ADVERT WP:ESSAY WP:OPINION WP:ORIG

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Shortcode	Enter remarks here	.	.
WP:VER	.	Verifiable sources
WP:N	.	Notable	.
WP:NPOV	.	Neutral	.
WP:ORIG	.	No original research
WP:ESSAY	.	No essays - no original thought or opinions.	.
WP:ADVERT	.	No adverts, minimal links (no affiliation to links), no living people quoted.	.
WP:SYN	.	No synthesis of ideas.	.
WP:HOWTO	.	No guide-like sentences
WP:OPINION	.	No personal opinions	.
WP:ENC	.	Encyclopedic	.
WP:ESSAY	.	Not an essay - refs for each sentence, so not an essay.	.
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VisitingPhilosopher (talk) 21:52, 17 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Propose removal of orphan tag

Evidence: This shows all the current links from relevant pages which link to this article: Special:WhatLinksHere/Allegory of the long spoons

19 links currently, 6 of them directly relevant-intra-wikipedia-content links

Let me know any objections to removal of the orphan tag from the head of the page, or at least move it further down the page. Much appreciated. VisitingPhilosopher (talk) 22:46, 17 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No objections and four directly relevant-intra-wikipedia-content referrals to this page, so I will remove the tag at the head of the article. VisitingPhilosopher (talk) 22:54, 18 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Origin of the parable

This article describes the parable, but doesn't say where it originates. More importantly it doesn't really discuss its use as a contemporary idiom. Needs work I think.Gymnophoria (talk) 11:08, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for the constructive comments and invaluable feedback.

I think the contemporary idiom you are referring to is:

"When supping with the devil, always use a long spoon"

Should wikipedia have a new article about this idiom?

I believe that idiom is a different subject to this parable, although possibly a similar etymological root.

The spirit of the two diverge in this way:

The parable - positive encouragement towards Golden Rule kindness and good behaviour.
The idiom - a negative flavour which is a bit more cynical.

If a new article is created, the two pages would appear on a Long spoons (disambiguation) page.

Contemporary usage of the parable is attempted in the "Interpretation" section - please add any further views on its usage to that section.

I've not had much luck tracing the original source, I recall personally that it was Nordic / Scandinavian, but that was probably hearsay from a khutbah / sermon when I was little.

Any help with tracing the origin, or ideas on where to start, would be much appreciated. ♥ VisitingPhilosopher ♥ ^{talk ◊ contribs} 20:34, 7 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Oldest sources

I found the oldest versions of this allegory in the following documents, the first is a 1941 edition of"The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science":

https://books.google.it/books?id=FFYqAQAAMAAJ&q=Heaven+Hell+feed+spoons&dq=Heaven+Hell+feed+spoons&hl=it&sa=X&ei=LJHiVPWJIcn3atG7gvgI&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAjgK

the second document is "Typical Plans for Postwar World Peace" by Otto Tod Mallery in 1942:

http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/intcon21&div=41&id=&page=

Is there anyone who can find older source of this tale?

Bye.

--Myron Aub (talk) 01:18, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In "Conflict Resolution"

In the current version of the article:

During conflict resolution in non-Western cultures[which?] communicating difficult truths is better through a third party who can make suggestions through such stories.[8]

This seems... oddly out of place. It's just sort of there, apropos of nothing, with an associated citation but no real connection to the rest of the article. I think this should be removed as not especially relevant, unless someone wants to flesh it out a bit more and connect it to the rest of the article. Maybe it would be better placed on some other page, e.g. Conflict resolution?
--Kadin2048 (talk) 19:26, 23 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]