What does "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mean?
It means an instruction to help yourself by means which appear plausible to the instructor, but which are in fact unrealistic or impossible in real life. It is a refined manner of pricking on someone who is in a disadvantaged position.
The original comes from the Adventures of Baron von Münchausen, which is a German 18th century collection of tall tales. “Münchausen” has become synonymous to a pathological liar, and “Münchausen syndrome” is a psychological condition where someone pretends to be ill or deliberately produces symptoms of illness in themselves.
In one of the stories, Baron von Münchhausen had had a horse shot under himself while he was crossing a marsh, and he had sunken in the marsh. So he grabbed his bootstraps (the two small leather loops on the sides of the boots) and lifted himself off the marsh to dry land.
This is, of course, impossible - you only pull the boots tighter on your feet. But this tall tale has began to live its own life - the computer startup sequence is thus called bootstrapping (as the computer sets itself automatically up) or just booting.
One of Baron von Münchausen’s feats was sitting on a cannon barrel, and when his friend fired it, he, grabbed the cannonball and then flew through the skies.
he irony is that the phrase is now used seriously and without irony or reference to Munchausen as part of the neoliberal agenda to justify austerity measures.
It means an instruction to help yourself by means which appear plausible to the instructor, but which are in fact unrealistic or impossible in real life. It is a refined manner of pricking on someone who is in a disadvantaged position.
The original comes from the Adventures of Baron von Münchausen, which is a German 18th century collection of tall tales. “Münchausen” has become synonymous to a pathological liar, and “Münchausen syndrome” is a psychological condition where someone pretends to be ill or deliberately produces symptoms of illness in themselves.
In one of the stories, Baron von Münchhausen had had a horse shot under himself while he was crossing a marsh, and he had sunken in the marsh. So he grabbed his bootstraps (the two small leather loops on the sides of the boots) and lifted himself off the marsh to dry land.
This is, of course, impossible - you only pull the boots tighter on your feet. But this tall tale has began to live its own life - the computer startup sequence is thus called bootstrapping (as the computer sets itself automatically up) or just booting.
One of Baron von Münchausen’s feats was sitting on a cannon barrel, and when his friend fired it, he, grabbed the cannonball and then flew through the skies.
he irony is that the phrase is now used seriously and without irony or reference to Munchausen as part of the neoliberal agenda to justify austerity measures.
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