Golden Oldies: Flavors of Fools
by Miki SaxonIt’s amazing to me, but looking back over more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies are a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.
I’ve written several posts over the years about fools (links below). I thought sharing previous thoughts was apropos, since tomorrow’s post is about the importance/value of fools to every organization.
Read other Golden Oldies here.
In the past we’ve looked at fools and money, fools and management and Shakespeare’s idea that one should never underestimate someone “wise enough to play the fool.”
One fool thing I haven’t addressed is the idea of suffering them gladly, as in ‘he doesn’t suffer fools gladly’.
An op-ed piece defines the saying this way,
It suggests that a person is so smart he has trouble tolerating people who are far below his own high standards. It is used to describe a person who is so passionately committed to a vital cause that he doesn’t have time for social niceties toward those idiots who stand in its way. It is used to suggest a level of social courage; a person who has the guts to tell idiots what he really thinks.
(If you buy the validity of the idea behind this definition I have a great deal on an orange bridge you can buy for your backyard.)
It isn’t courage this person has, but rather a lack of empathy, an abundance of arrogance and absolutely no manners.
And make no mistake, even these days manners are important; in fact, more so than ever. As Edmund Burke said,
“Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.”
So before you part a fool and his money, give a fool a tool, or refuse to suffer a fool I suggest you look in the mirror, because one person’s genius is another person’s fool.
Flickr image credit: Chris Makarsky
