These popular (and noisy) little animals and members of the Finch family were (paradoxically) darlings of the “Silent Generation” pet-set.
The canaries’ incessant twittering could be heard emanating from mineshafts, patios and kitchens throughout the first -world.
-A sound that has recently, been superceded by more insidious “digital noise”, furious thumb-taps and involuntary utterances of another type of global twitterer..
“The canary in the coalmine”
Until the1980s in the U.S., U.K., Australia & Canada canaries were used in the underground mining industry. Their environmental sensitivity and noisy nature -an artefact of their lonely, tireless search for a “significant other”- were employed for detecting and alerting underground human miners to the presence of toxic gases like Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Carbon Monoxide and others that we’ve otherwise been content to release into the open air…
Put simply, if the canary went quiet, it was assumed to be dead due to the presence of toxic gases and therefore a trigger to make a dash for the lifts….
Hence, “The canary in the coalmine” as a metaphor for a (the) harbinger of “bad things”, has become embedded in our vernacular.
This is not to be confused with another avian metaphor for describing unknowable, cataclysmic events that were subsequently, “inappropriately rationalised” : “The Black Swan”
This is based on a Roman belief that black swans didn’t exist and hence, “..the observation of a single black swan would be the undoing of the logic of any system of thought, as well as any reasoning that followed from that underlying logic.”
Of course, (unlike the Romans) the folks from Dawlish U.K and we Australians KNOW they exist..
Could it be argued; if you were able to recognise and respond to all of the dead canaries, a “Black swan” (from this perspective) cannot exist or, is that a logical impossibility? In which case, would not the existence of a logical impossibility establish the very basis for a “Black Swan”?
Our natural predilection for “Negativity bias” means that we are often, (sometimes unconsciously) hypervigilant; anticipating and planning for the next appearance of our metaphorical, “Ex yellow feathered friends” among the many events that we witness.
Occasionally, our bias (and the metaphorical, ex-canary) serves us well. We believe we can recognise a portent relatively easily. Take for example, the historic (and truly hysterical) run on toilet paper following the General availability release of COVID-19..
Mostly however, the “canaries” are observed in plain sight; post-mortem and rendered in glorious 16k, super-slo-motion, 10000 frames/second by our ever-ready “hindsight” goggles..
For example reflect on how many Bitcoin “should have” been bought “..back when it was 25k..”..?
And then, there’s always the question of whether the canary is actually dead…
“Mr. Praline: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. ‘E’s dead, that’s what’s wrong with it!
Owner: No, no, ‘e’s uh,…he’s resting.”
Or like the fallen forest tree, cannot be heard….
Notably, in either case, the death (or otherwise) of the canary cannot be established hence, the scenario has morphed into my favourite cat….
I made once (muttered below my breath) a mix of metaphors referencing the endless journey shared with avid ornithologists around the world: “One person’s “Canary in a coalmine” is another’s “Ex Parrot” unless it becomes a Black Swan”.
Have a great weekend.