A really difficult Japanese idiom today, it literally means, "dogs who have lost are still barking," or more in terms Americans can understand, "sour grapes." Japanese society apparently frowns upon that, depicting the losers as dogs and whose cries are just barking.
I've suffered a lot from cases of sour grapes. Especially after dodgeball games. In sports people appreciate the losers of a match to accept their loss, congratulate the winners, and try next time. I don't disagree with that at all, but sometimes it's just hard to accept losses when there was a close call that didn't go your way, the refs made a mistake, or the other team was just plain cheating. I have a lot of sympathy for those who lost a tight game, but as I get older I understand that sports game and games of chance are decided largely by elements of chance, especially two teams that are of almost equal skill. Sometimes, the ball just bounces the wrong way, and no amount of moaning, groaning, or complaining (wow that all rhymed!) will change the outcome. Unfortunately in sports, once the outcome is decided, there is EXTREMELY small chance it will be overturned, no way the game will be replayed or any relief come as a result of moaning about the result (Can't send the teams back out there and replay the game from where the error occurred, sports just doesn't work that way). . By the time the next match comes (possibly a year or 4 years for some World Cup matches!) it'll all be forgotten and a new match will have begun.
Recently though, I've had a case of very sour grapes where Avis rent-a-car bamboozled me into getting an "upgrade" on the rental car I had picked up in Kansas City. I didn't know they were upgrading me, and didn't know they had charged me the prepaid gas money, which is they charge you a specified rate for gas (normally a dollar/gallon more than the local gas rate). When I went to complain them about it, they stood by their charges and did not admit any fault. I knew going in that rental car companies are pretty shady and will try to offer you everything under the sun that you don't need like protection, insurance, extra seats, GPS (who needs GPS nowadays when it's on the phone?) but didn't realize they would charge me extra without giving me the option to decline. And having charged it to my credit card already, I'm in the position of having to complain after the fact and look like I have sour grapes. I think in this situation though, it's right to speak up about bogus charges, the rental car company makes a lot of money off of overcharging people and banking on the fact enough people just don't notice it on their bill and ignore, or simply don't care enough to call in. In some cases, the loser dogs have to bark. In this case, I reported Avis to the Better Business Bureau. Not a big enough case ($102 extra charge) to bring a lawsuit, but certainly enough to catch their customer service department's attention.
The 2 cases are really similar if you think about it. Teams that cheat in sports are banking on the fact that others won't catch them cheating; rental car companies bank on the fact their aggressive/ bad business policies won't be noticed by the customer. There's a tendency in life for those without power or lower on the totem pole of society (ordinary grunts like me) to just blame oneself for anything bad that happens, like the guy on the highway cutting you off, getting a parking ticket even though no signs were posted of any no parking times, guy riding a bike on the sidewalk bumping you off the road. All these small things in life pile up and are difficult to control, but once in a while a beaten man (or dog) has got to rise up and fight for something, if not just for getting some monetary value back but just to get some dignity back, to keep the cheaters/ car companies honest, to express frustration over the issue and indicate that we notice these things and that it's not OK for it to continue again.
And yes, this is how a lot of people feel about the state of American politics now. Sometimes, the losing side is the majority and has a very loud bark and can influence how things are done in the world. So within reason, and when you're pretty certain you're right (don't fight over whether your weapon was concealed or not with the officer!) sometimes you gotten eat those sour grapes.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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