I am sure we're all familiar with the old metaphor involving a live frog in a pan of water that's heated gradually until it gets to boiling, only the change is so gradual the frog never notices and thus boils to death. You can use it to describe and accentuate almost any life experience, from involvement in cults to a presidential campaign.
So how'd we get a frog in there as the standard for comparison? Was it just for the mental image of the frog escaping (or not escaping, as it were) by simply hopping out of the little pan? Yes, surely that's a simple enough escape to our eyes. A frog not seeing that avenue must definitely be an idiot and deserves to be fried up for dinner.
But who the hell ever cooked anything by placing it, live, in a watery pan, and then applying heat v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y? Who, indeed.
