Wisdom in a Foolish Time
What does wisdom look like in a society that must have a clean answer to every controversy? And, some thoughts on the truth of our narratives.
View
More This, Less That
Stop This, Start That
This is Good, That is Evil (or that person is good, this person is evil …)
This is Smart, That is Stupid
Headlines and tweets and takes are filled with these binary classifications. One or the other - with 180 degrees of nothing in-between. When it comes to movements, politicians, ideas, trends, celebrities, sports figures - we are continually given a choice: to be enthusiastic supporters or implacable opponents. What do you think of Prince Harry? (or, perhaps more polarizing, Meghan Markle?). No opinion, you say? Sorry, you haven’t been paying attention - takes are required - strong takes, in fact. Last year, we were asked to choose between Johnny and Amber. If you read the dispatch from The Embassy on that particular burning controversy, you probably know some of what I might say when it comes to the Prince and his family. I don’t really have a strong take and I don’t feel the need to have one. In fact, it may be none of my business in the main, even as I hear this or that and form this or that (tentative, private) judgment here or there. But I am no fun, as you may have already guessed.
As a society, we want clear choices between two opposites (it seems). More and more, we want simple, clear-cut, concrete categories and labels and courses of action. We want easy decisions on what is right, what to do, and who is wrong. My question is why?
In some ways, it might be easy to guess. We have lost track of our story and our identity and our purpose and the world seems complicated, confusing, chaotic, uncertain, even terrifying. We don’t know what to think or what to do. We want someone to present us with a simple choice, a simplistic moral judgment, a binary classification. In this arena, we don’t have to think about 1000 things or 100 factors or even 10 possibilities - we have two of everything. It is much easier.
I may have frustrated some with my understanding of how to apply Genesis 9:5-6, which sanctions the death penalty for murder, to our current situation and society. I basically said, it depends, and I am not sure. It would have seemed easier for some if I would have just made an ironclad case for it or against it. In the end, though, it isn’t easier. I may or may not have the right approach to the death penalty, but I do believe the world in which there is a clean answer to every controversy is a world we don’t live in. That isn’t the story we are in, that isn’t who we are. And that is where wisdom comes in. We are adults in a world requiring wisdom, not children in a world requiring simplicity.
We are adults in a world requiring wisdom, not children in a world requiring simplicity.
Proverbs - the book in the Bible - speaks wisdom to us, but it does so proverbially (to state the obvious). In other words, Proverbs give us general tenants of wisdom - but it takes understanding of our story and ourselves and our situation to apply these proverbs. It takes wisdom to apply the wisdom sayings. The wisdom sayings are just one tool to develop wisdom.
Let’s say you are interacting with a fool. You may be thinking of a particular person right now. Hopefully nobody is reading this and thinking of you. Hopefully you aren’t reading this thinking of me. But anyway, let’s just imagine you are interacting with a fool. How do we handle that situation? We think of a fool as someone who isn’t smart or who is reckless or unthinking. But a fool in the biblical sense (while it may include those characteristics) is one who disregards wisdom which comes from above. They think they know what is right or best and they aren’t open to correction - they lack humility. They don’t know what they think they know while they think they know everything.
When you run across a fool spouting folly - what is the proper response? What does wisdom say?
Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
or you yourself will be just like him.
Proverbs 26:4
This seems wise. Don’t throw your pearls before swine, don’t engage, don’t answer. If you get into it with a fool you will just look foolish. That is easy, clean, certain. A good rule for life. If you want to stay in this happy state, don’t read the next proverb.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
or he will be wise in his own eyes.
Proverbs 26:5
This also, when you think about it, seems pretty wise. If you let a fool continue to spout foolishness, they will continue to think themselves wise and continue to do more damage to themselves and others. Address the folly from a fool so it won’t continue or spread. Makes sense.
So, in summary, do not answer a fool. And, answer a fool. It depends. To borrow from another work of Solomon, there is a season for answering a fool and a season for not answering a fool. How do you know the difference? Wisdom is knowing the difference. And humility is knowing that wisdom is required and we may not always have a clean answer.
Here is what we seem to be doing as a society - we pick the proverb above we like the most (and, as a rule, that seems like the second one). Much of social media seems to be an attempt to live out the second proverb. But a piece of wisdom misapplied is the same thing as foolishness.
… a piece of wisdom misapplied is the same thing as foolishness.
Even though our answers might be different (or they might not), those of us in the church haven’t always been immune from misapplying wisdom. Which is to say we haven’t always been immune from foolishness.
Are some things clear cut? Of course, it wouldn’t take long for any of us to name a good number of them. But not everything. And, worse, some things that may be clear cut I don’t have much knowledge of - or enough knowledge to have an informed opinion. In these cases, the wise reply to a question is something we don’t hear or say enough, “I don’t know.” But isn’t it strange that when we receive that answer from someone we know to be intelligent, our estimation of them is likely to grow? We have more confidence in them, not less. That is because they are displaying something rare - wisdom.
Take
OK, so speaking of takes - I haven’t had one in a while. While I said I don’t really have an informed opinion on the Harry vs. the Royal Family situation, that situation - partly because it has seemed impossible to avoid it - has prompted some thoughts.
Whatever the truth is in that situation, some involved (you pick the person, there are probably a few), seem to have an view on the family situation that explains everything. This preferred narrative of events seem to justify all responses from one side and condemn the responses from the other - and, especially, the press. As I have said, I don’t know the truth. But I have come to believe that narratives that explain everything else while they absolve me are too simple. They are a version of the 180 degree thinking I wrote about above.
Whenever I find myself with an self-absolving, all-explaining narrative - I probably need to look again. With humility.
Links
The Truth about Johnny and Amber - The Embassy
The Sixth Commandment and Justice - The Embassy
I wonder if all the angry people in the world are people who have been leading pretty foolish lives but are just starting to figure out that the world isn't as black and white as they thought, and they're pissed because they thought they had it all figured out. Unconsciously.