monter le cheval de fer
A coot will usually blink when hit in the head with a ball-peen hammer

the tug abides

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov
Panta Rhei Heraclitus

"It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers any more than it is to make sheep ferocious."
--Henry David Thoreau