One ‘Bad Apple’ Can Spoil a Metaphor
A bad apple is generally understood to refer to someone who creates problems for other people, and whose actions or behaviors negatively influence the larger group. The phrase is often interpreted erroneously by implying that a bad apple is not representative of the whole, when in fact the term stems from the larger phrase «one bad apple can spoil the barrel,» which suggests that the negativity is not an isolated incident.
In May 2020, in light of protests across the country following the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police, White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien spoke on CNN’s State of the Union and said:
There are some bad apples in there. And there — there are some bad cops that are racist. And there are cops that are — maybe don’t have the right training. And there are some that are just bad cops. And they need to be rooted out, because there’s a few bad apples that are giving law enforcement a terrible name.
Some commentators pointed out that O’Brien seemed to get his metaphor backwards. His intention, by labeling racist police officers bad apples, was to say that such officers are not representative of police departments as a whole, and that an individual’s corrupt behavior can be isolated from the system in which that individual operates. But the proverb to which O’Brien alluded actually suggests the opposite: “one bad apple spoils the whole barrel.”
Origin of ‘Bad Apple’
Bad apple (or rotten apple) is indeed defined as “someone who creates problems or causes trouble for others; specifically : a member of a group whose behavior reflects poorly on or negatively affects or influences the remainder of the group.”
Versions of the proverb can be found as far back as the early 16th century. In “The Cook’s Tale” from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, an apprentice chef named Perkin is asked to be let go from servitude on the rationale that his habits of drinking, vice, and debauchery will rub off on his colleagues.
Wel bet is roten appul out of hoord
Than that it rotie al the remenaunt.
(“Well better is a rotten apple out of the store
Than that it rot all the remnant.») … It is ful lasse harm to lete hym pace,
Than he shende alle the servantz in the place.
(It is much less harm to let him go away,
Than that he should ruin all the servants in the place.”)
— The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd ed.
In Poor Richard’s Almanack, Benjamin Franklin worded the saying as “The rotten Apple spoils his Companion.” The choice of the personal pronoun makes quite clear that Poor Richard is not talking strictly about fruit. The saying turned up frequently in 19th-century sermons as a warning to stay away from sinners because they tended to be corrupting influences.
As The New Yorker’s Helen Rosner writes, the proverb is supported by the actual science of how apples decay:
Blight spreads quickly, and it’s not always apparent on the fruit’s surface. Even without the influence of invader or infection, an apple abets its own spoilage: its skin, minutely porous, exhales ethylene, a gaseous compound that induces ripening, and the fruit has no interest in stopping at the point where it serves our needs.
— Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 8 June 2020
Misuse of the Proverb
O’Brien is far from the first person to get the expression wrong. In fact, many speakers have made use of the proverb to express the same idea—that rotten behavior by a member of a group can be considered in isolation and not be viewed as typical for that group.
Bad apple was invoked regularly in 2004 by media and public figures as part of the dialogue surrounding the George W. Bush Administration’s response to accusations of torture of prisoners imposed by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib.
A senior U.S. official said Thursday that Sanchez was surprised by the severity of the abuses and the apparent lack of response by the military police unit’s officers.
«One of the things General Sanchez was concerned about was the fact that this was more than one bad apple, one bad incident,» an aide to Sanchez said on condition of anonymity, because of the continuing investigation. «Why wasn’t the chain of command involved? Why wasn’t the chain of command aware?»
— Sewell Chan and Jackie Spinner, The Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2004
«The outrage was over the photographs, because the photographs were living color of what those top-secret memorandums authorized,» [Retired Army Col. Janis] Karpinski said in an interview Wednesday. «So, it is unfair . the soldiers may have moved through [the military justice] system, but they never had a fair court-martial. Not any one of them, because they were condemned as one of the ‘bad apples.’ » Karpinski, then a brigadier general and commander of Abu Ghraib, was demoted to colonel because of the scandal. A second officer, Col. Thomas Pappas, the commander of the military intelligence unit assigned to Abu Ghraib when the offenses occurred, was relieved of duty and fined in May 2005. Seven low-ranking guards and two military intelligence soldiers — described by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz as «bad apples» — were disciplined.
— Samira Simone, CNN.com, 22 Apr. 2009
In a wide-ranging speech, Mr. Gore also spoke of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, which he said was not the work «of a few bad apples,» as the nation had been assured by Mr. Bush. The incidents, he said, had caused damage not only to America’s strategic interests but «also to America’s spirit.» The prison abuse did not «spring from a few twisted minds at the lowest ranks of our military enlisted personnel,» Mr. Gore said. «No, it came from twisted values and atrocious policies at the highest levels of our government,» he said. «This was done in our name, by our leaders.»
— Terence Neilan, The New York Times, 26 May 2004
Well, I think that everyone understands that you have mistakes, that you might have bad apples in a great big barrel. But I also think that how we react, what we do now, and what steps are taken to assure the world that we would never tolerate this kind of behavior, that we have a Pat Tillman out there who gives up a lot to just enlist and become a part of our army, is the kind of person that we believe Americans are, and that we want to portray to the world.
— Kay Bailey Hutchison, transcript, CNBC, 4 May 2004
The administration began by dismissing the misconduct at Abu Ghraib as the work of what President Bush called «a few American troops.» The bad-apple defense quickly crumbled, though, with the leak of government | memorandums authorizing the use of «enhanced interrogation techniques.»
— Jonathan Mahler, The New York Times Book Review, 29 July 2007
Association with Police Misconduct
Even before Abu Ghraib, English speakers were making their own conclusions about figurative fruit rotting tendencies. Bad apple and rotten apple commonly arise in discussions of police misconduct and police departments, sometimes with the metaphor understood and sometimes not:
He [Deion Sanders] also said he had no hard feelings toward police. «One bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch,» he said, referring to Herb Kohus, an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard at Riverfront Stadium and got into an argument with Sanders that led to the charges.
— Associated Press, 25 May 1995
City government spin doctors are trying to depict the police department’s problems as a matter of insufficient budgets and a few bad apples. Meanwhile, many nervous citizens are calling for a federal takeover of the cops.
— Carl T. Rowan Jr., The New Republic, 19 Jan. 1998
«I think the citizens of Baltimore are outraged,» said [William H.] Murphy [Jr.]. «We need the police very badly. We wish them well. . But we resent deeply how they police in the black community. «I’m not indicting all the police,» he said. «It only takes a few rotten apples to spoil the barrel. But this is more than a few rotten apples. This is an institutional pattern of long standing.»
— Sumathi Reddy, The Baltimore Sun, 1 Aug. 2006
Popular culture might have played a role in spreading confusion about the metaphor. In 1970, the Osmonds recorded their hit “One Bad Apple,” with its catchy refrain phrased in the negative (and improper subject-verb agreement to boot): “One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch, girl.” The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for five weeks. The lyrics to “One Bad Apple,” addressed to a female listener, use the bad-apple metaphor to argue that because one previous male object of her affection broke her heart, she shouldn’t give up on all men (“Oh, give it one more try / Before you give up on love”).
It might seem a stretch to draw the line from a teenybopper earworm to torture in an Iraqi prison to playing down the rogue actions of police officers, but we wouldn’t put anything past the Osmonds.
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One Bad Apple
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One Bad Apple
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Description
The healer Praxilla asks Bayek to help her investigate disturbing reports coming from Asklepieion in Balagrae. Are Flavius and the Oracle’s Relic involved?
Dialogue
Bayek arrived in Balagrae and walked through the streets heading to Theramenes’ Clinic.
- Woman 1: If Diocles was my lover, I would chain him to the bed before I let him leave me for Cyrene.
- Woman 2: Have you seen the proconsul? The most comely man in Cyrene, nay, the world!
- Woman 1: That is because you think of nothing but men. Praxilla has her own life here with her clinic.
Bayek entered the clinic and saw Praxilla sitting on a bench, talking to an elderly woman.
- Praxilla:Bayek! I heard what happened in Cyrene.
Bayek walked up and talked to Praxilla.
- Bayek:How is our brave widow?
- Praxilla:Good, as you can see.
- Bayek:Small victories and joys like these. We take them where we can.
- Praxilla:Bayek, Flavius was here. But that is not the worst of it. Mothers and wives of the Temple are sick and wailing in the streets. Their pleas to see their loved ones unanswered.
- Bayek:Since Flavius came? It cannot be coincidence.
- Praxilla:No. Can you speak to my friend Crios? He is a water bearer at the temple. My task is the priestess Melitta. She is overzealous, but I cannot believe she would prey on the sick and dying.
- Bayek:Be wary. I will return here when I’ve spoken to Crios.
Bayek reached the Asklepieion, and found it guarded. Upon making his way into the main hall, he found a group of votives and offerings on the floor.
- Bayek:They believe that if they give Asclepius these votives, he will heal them.
Bayek reached the second floor and saw Crios standing on a table, staring at the wall.
- Bayek:Crios? What has Flavius done to you?
- Crios: (Incoherent Mumbling)
Crios fell and Bayek caught him, laying him on the floor, holding him still as Crios convulsed.
- Bayek:Wake up! Where is Flavius? Where is he?!
Crios reared up and grabbed at Bayek.
Bayek startled up, letting Crios fall, the man convulsing again before falling still.
- Bayek:Another life spat on by that Roman shit-eater.
- Crios:Whispers. whispers.
- Bayek:What’s that?
- Crios:Melitta, the viper of the staff.
- Bayek:The priestess?
- Crios:No, no my lord Flavius, please.
Bayek carried Crios out of the temple and brought him to Praxilla’s clinic.
- Bayek:Praxilla! Praxilla!
- Woman 3:Stop your screeching, the sick need their rest.
- Bayek:Praxilla!
Bayek laid Crios down.
- Woman 3:Alright, alright, just keep your voice down. She left to speak to the priestess.
- Crios:No! The priestess. a snake in the apple. she has them, she keeps them hidden. lies in whispers. secrets. shrouded. Her shrine of whispers.
- Woman 3:Is this poor witless thing your doing?
- Bayek:Did Praxilla tell you where she was going?
- Woman 3:The mountains. but.
- Bayek:Look to this man, he needs help. I will find this Shrine of Whispers.
Bayek made his way to the mountains north of Balagrae. After some searching, he found a group of soldiers guarding an entrance to a cave. He eliminated the soldiers and entered the cave.
- Bayek:A secret in the mountains. I pray Praxilla and the others are alright.
Within the mountain, he found the natural cave giving way to a manmade shrine, and saw Praxilla tied up in front of a statue of the Greek goddess Hekate, with Melitta and her soldiers in the area.
- Melitta:You should be grateful, you serve Rome now. And the work will be over soon. We must know its secrets, don’t you see, Praxilla? It is simply progress. A marriage of science and magic.
- Praxilla:You are nothing but Flavius’ pawn.
- Melitta:How unimaginative you are. But why would you understand the will of Gods? This sacred object, it’s a thing of wonder and terror.
Bayek attacked Melitta and her guards.
- Melitta:Call off your rabid dog, Praxilla! Killing me does nothing. Semper Flavium.
Bayek slew Melitta.
- Praxilla:She was a healer, she makes me ashamed.
Bayek freed Praxilla.
- Praxilla:The priestess, she was torturing these people.
Together, they opened the cages and freed the prisoners, who promptly fled. On the opposite end of the room were two scroll shelves and a set of desks. Bayek approached them and read a scroll on the left-most desk.
On the effects of the Orb of Siwa
It seems that each man behaves as to the desires of his temperament and the limits of his imagination. I told Kleitos that he was a chicken and he should peck the ground by my feet, instead he believed he could fly and jumped headlong from the temple stairs. The relic does not make you a mindless automaton; instead, it plants within you such a powerful illusion, that you cannot be dissuaded from the truth of it. In the right hands, this is is an artifact of unimaginable potency.
Bayek moved on to the center desk.
To my most trusted ally
Melitta,
You have been one of my most trusted advisors and so I entrust to the most valuable reward. You are my sole confident of my plans for the future of Rome. The Eternal City will be great again, but Caesar, enamored of that Egyptian viper, has grown weak. He cannot lead us and so the Order of the Ancients will see how I prove my worth to them. I will bring this pathetic backwater to its knees. They will understand what it means to be in the presence of a god. And you will be at my side when they do.
Flavius Metellus
Bayek found a small table piled with scrolls behind a column, close to another shelf.
Egypt Military Presence
Flavius, first you must know that there are Egyptian spies operating in the region. It is from them that most of our intelligence has been extracted. Caesar’s lover, Cleopatra, has ambitions to make herself Queen of Rome. I would not be surprised if she sailes down the Tiber in a barge of solid gold! As you witnissed in the Battle of the Nile, her soldiers are mainly composed of hoplites and spearmen, with mounted scouts, heavy cavalry, and the hetairoi, her mounted bodyguard.
General Agrippa
Bayek saw a scroll that had fallen from the shelf.
Investigation into the Medjay Bayek
Melitta, we have spoken of my concerns regarding Bayek of Siwa, a medjay from the shit and sand of Egypt. He has a personal vendetta against us and so far has resisted all attempts to be reasoned with. His mind is strong. But, he can be broken. If you come across him, I suggest he would make an excellent candidate for our investigations into the power of the artifact.
Do what you will, you have my full authority.
Flavius Metellus
Bayek escorted Praxilla out of the shrine.
- Praxilla:I would burn this place to ashes if I could. There is terrible evil here, Bayek. I am terrified for the fate of my Cyrenaica.
- Bayek:Melitta was mad.
- Praxilla:That relic, the one Flavius used at the farm. He used it here.
- Bayek:When I found Crios, I knew. I could feel it clawing, digging in my mind.
- Praxilla:That is what it does, insidious like a parasite. Control men’s minds and make us slaves.
- Bayek:Our fates are our own, Praxilla, we will always fight for that.
They reached the outside, following the freed men.
- Bayek:Melitta could not be saved.
- Praxilla:After what she did? I would have slit her throat myself. Thank you, for me, for Balagrae, it is more than I would have asked.
- Bayek:And that is why I give it freely, while freedom still means something.
- Praxilla:Don’t you ever get sick of saying so many good byes?
- Bayek:Part of me, yes. But it is part of the journey and on it I find those who give me hope. Your land will not die, Praxilla. You are its healer, its protector, its Medjay.
- Praxilla:Now is our time to emerge from the madness, Bayek of Siwa.
Outcome
Bayek found Crios and brought him back to the clinic. He then sought out the Shrine of Whispers, where he assassinated Melitta and freed Praxilla and the other prisoners.
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