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<\/a><\/p>\nThe phrase \u201choist with their own petard\u201d and its variations means, according to the Cambridge Dictionary<\/a>, means \u201cto\u00a0suffer\u00a0harm\u00a0from a\u00a0plan\u00a0by which you had\u00a0intended\u00a0to\u00a0harm\u00a0someone\u00a0else\u201d<\/p>\n The phrase is one of the many expressions bestowed to the English language by William Shakespeare.\u00a0 On a trip to England, Hamlet discovers a plot to murder him and switches some letters so that the conspirators, his Wittenberg class mates Rosencranz and Guildenstern, are murdered instead.\u00a0 Savoring his trick, he says,<\/p>\n \u2019tis the sport to have the engineer I used to assume that the metaphor had something to do with ropes, the picture being of someone hoisted into the air, as in hoisting a flag.\u00a0 I had no idea what a \u201cpetard\u201d was, maybe an item of clothing that the rope hooked into.<\/p>\n But that was before I became a 17th-century scholar!\u00a0 I now know that a \u201cpetard<\/a>\u201d is a small bomb, containing about five pounds of gun powder, not dropped by an airplane of course but set by an \u201cengineer\u201d who sets it in front of a door or fortification, then lights the fuse to blow it up.<\/p>\n Shakespeare is describing an engineer who is blown up (lifted up into the air, \u201choist\u201d) by his own bomb, something that happened quite frequently in the early days of gunpowder.<\/p>\n I keep seeing examples of people getting hoist by their own petard\u2013that is, getting blown up by the bomb that they themselves have made.<\/p>\n For example, last week\u2019s Monday Miscellany<\/a> mentioned how the job market has collapsed for computer science majors. I have since come across an article in The Atlantic<\/em> on the subject entitled\u00a0The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting<\/a> in which Rose Horowitch puts the blame squarely on AI.\u00a0 \u201cArtificial intelligence has proved to be even more valuable as a writer of computer code than as a writer of words,\u201d she writes. \u201cThis means it is ideally suited to replacing the very type of person who built it.\u201d\u00a0 The engineer\u2013and it is an engineer, though in a different sense from Shakespeare\u2019s day\u2013has developed a technology that is blowing up other people\u2019s jobs, but it is now blowing up his own job.<\/p>\n I have noticed, though, that this metaphor has also become a tactic, so that the conservatives now in power are using laws and policies developed by liberals as a means of thwarting the liberals.\u00a0 For example. . .<\/p>\n \u2013The Department of Justice has announced<\/a> that it will be using laws designed to protect abortion clinics as a way to protect pro-life pregnancy clinics.<\/p>\n \u2014Civil Rights laws<\/a> against \u201crace-exclusionary\u201d practices are being used to dismantle DEI programs.<\/p>\n \u2013Generous federal aid to education<\/a>, long a major liberal cause, has given the federal government enormous power over American schools and colleges, which the new administration is using to undo liberal causes in education.<\/p>\n \u2013Democratic presidents Obama and Biden used executive orders to bypass Congress all the time.\u00a0 But now Democrats are outraged because a Republican president is doing the same thing.<\/p>\n \u2013The Biden administration used its justice department to punish political opponents, particularly, Donald Trump.\u00a0 Now the Trump administration is using its justice department to punish political opponents, particularly the justice department officials who went after Trump.<\/p>\n Trump is using the powers given to the federal government and the executive branch by the left to undo the left.\u00a0 He is hoisting the left with its own petards.<\/p>\n But petards can blow up engineers of any persuasion.\u00a0 Conservatives must beware lest they get hoisted once the progressives get back to power.<\/p>\n It may be satisfying for conservatives to take away Harvard\u2019s ability to bring in foreign students as payback to the academic left.\u00a0 But that same tactic can be used as a precedent against Christian and conservative colleges, taking away their ability to approve foreign students, which would be a devastating financial hit to many unwoke small institutions.<\/p>\n One petard that both sides are tossing back and forth is the Senate\u2019s filibuster, the option of unlimited debate on a bill that can only be overcome by a 60% vote to shut down discussion and to bring the measure to a vote.\u00a0 In practice, this means that all bills must win 60% of the vote, otherwise they will pass into oblivion.<\/p>\n In the last Senate, with its close Democratic majority, progressive Democrats wanted to eliminate the filibuster, since it served as a major obstacle to implementing President Biden\u2019s agenda.\u00a0 Now, in a Senate with a close Republican majority, Democrats rely on the filibuster as a major obstacle to implementing President Trump\u2019s agenda. So now, Republicans<\/em> are trying to find ways to get around the filibuster<\/a>!<\/p>\n Rules designed to favor one side can easily be used to favor the other side.\u00a0\u00a0To use other hoary expressions, though not by Shakespeare, \u201cturn about is fair play<\/a>,\u201d a sword \u201ccan cut both ways<\/a>,\u201d and \u201cwhat goes around comes around<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 What we need are objective, fair principles that apply equally to everyone.<\/p>\n Can you think of other examples of being hoist by one\u2019s own petard?\u00a0 If so, give them in the comments.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration:\u00a0\u00a0Businessman facing debt issues<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0MAD TECK<\/a> via IconScout, free license [shows one kind of a petard]<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Hoist with his own petard” is a metaphor from Shakespeare meaning to get blown up by one’s own bomb. Conservatives are using this as a political tactic: To use policies developed by the left against the left. But petards can blow up both ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":83666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,25,26,28,35,36,44],"tags":[16652],"class_list":["post-83059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-history","category-language","category-law","category-literature","category-philosophy-2","category-politics","category-technology","tag-shakespeares-contributions-to-language"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nHoist with his own petard.\u00a0 (Hamlet<\/a>, Act 3, scene 4, lines 229- 230)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n