Parade of patriots, or fools?
I’ve learned that wisdom, the rightful use of knowledge, brings life, more to be treasured than gold. Photo by Stacey Warde
Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs, rather than a fool in his folly. — Proverbs 17:12
by Stacey Warde
The classic definition of a fool is someone who believes in a lie, who lives their life according to fables and unfounded claims, who refuses to acknowledge truth, all of which eventually result in their own or someone else’s ruin.
Fools are not to be trifled with; they are supremely dangerous — better to come across a bear robbed of her cubs than to meet a fool in his folly, says the author of Proverbs. They pose a real threat to the health and well-being of the community with their loud, false, and vociferous claims.
They bear false witness and malign others to further their own ends, and refuse to bend their hearts or minds to truth despite all the evidence, and willfully submit themselves (and those within their circle of influence) to eventual disgrace and humiliation. A wise person seeks to heal and mend, to build and create rather than malign and destroy.
There’s no peace or rest with fools; only calamity. They set their sights on the destruction of all that is good. Their goal is to demolish and tear down. They haven’t any plan or clue on how to make things better, only on how to destroy, disrupt, and divide. Their words — often rhetoric that has no basis in reality — are full of poison and misrepresentations of the facts, which don’t matter to them at all.
I’ve been no less a fool myself on many occasion, believing lies, getting angry at imagined slights, lashing out unintelligently, living in the fantastical world of magical thinking, holding fast to half-truths and trinkets of reality, concocting stories out of whole cloth, indulging in speculation, rumor, and hearsay, supporting lost causes. Over the years, however, and in spite of my own follies, I’ve gained more respect for wisdom and understanding because these, at least, are much less likely to end in disaster — for individuals as well as the larger community.
I’ve learned to think critically, parse truth from fiction, because I believe that these are the mature and responsible ways to behave as a citizen, because, let’s be honest, as even the Bible says, wisdom is more to be desired than folly. What is the nature of wisdom?
I’ve learned that wisdom, the rightful use of knowledge, brings life, more to be treasured than gold; wisdom and the actions derived from it are in accord with nature and are more likely to result in the good that promotes healthy community and constructive dialogue. Folly, living and believing in a lie, leads to shame, villainy, and death, as we’ve already witnessed and continue to witness among those who claim falsehoods as their guiding light.
So, here we are, a nation apparently half full of fools, on the heels of a global pandemic, still believing a lie, still clinging to villainy and the threat of armed resistance, still stupidly thinking against all the evidence and sound reason that Democrats stole Election 2020, still spuriously claiming that covid-19 is “just a flu,” despite the million victims in the US who have died from the disease, still holding up a false god (any politician, not just Trump) as their Savior, ad nauseam…. How sad, how really truly sad, that folly, maliciousness, and shameful, willful ignorance have become the hallmark of a “patriot” in the U.S. These so-called patriots now call good evil and evil good, promoting acts of violence such as we saw during 2020’s January 6 attack on the nation’s Capitol with blessings from the Biggest Fool of all.
I’ve had conversations with well-meaning friends and individuals who believe that we ought not to judge or criticize the wayward fool, that we ought ourselves to remain neutral in the false hope that we might turn their hearts towards what is true and lovely. Rather, these friends have argued, we ought to remain open to conversation or intelligent dialogue with people who have succumbed to the lies and ignorance of, say, shadowy figures or movements like the Pillow Guy or QAnon. I say that’s bunk. Holding out hope for a fool is wasting your time. Better to tie an 800-pound rock around your neck and jump into a lake. Leave the presence of a fool and let them wallow in the sewage of their own delusions. You’re better off without them. Save your gifts and talents for those who will listen.
And, at the risk of ignoring my own admonition to move on from the presence of fools and being maligned by false witnesses and sundry other misinformed individuals, if you are one of those people parading their folly in the streets, carrying “stop the steal” signs, claiming in ignorance and against all evidence or reason that Trump won the election, thumbing your nose at covid-19, defying science and public health guidelines, all I can say is, Just stop! Don’t be a fool. Don’t go down in history as someone who based their life on a lie. Stop trying to subvert our democracy. Stop minimizing the pain and suffering of those who have died from covid-19. Call yourself tragically misinformed, or claim the moniker of fool, but don’t flatter yourself by calling yourself a “patriot.” There’s no virtue or wisdom in such a specious claim. You, who ignorantly believe and willfully spread these lies, are no patriot.
A patriot doesn’t resort to arms in defiance of just laws, or try to destroy what is good; a patriot fights for liberty from real, not imagined, oppression. A patriot isn’t blind or foolish, or a subscriber to QAnon, or a follower of imbecilic claims by people like Mike Lindell (and the list goes on…) who says he has evidence of liberal malfeasance but has only offered evidence of his own delusions. A patriot defends the right to vote, demands that all votes be counted (once, twice, three times, it doesn’t matter), not the right to add or subtract votes at whim.
Let wisdom and reason, not folly, be your guiding light. Our republic, and the blood of those who sacrificed their lives to preserve it, demands nothing less. ∆
Stacey Warde writes from his home in Mendocino County where he studies and trusts in the words of the wise. This essay originally appeared on Medium.
