No one sets out to be a fool. Yet sometimes we all stumble into the trap. Here are 7 steps to cultivate stupidity.
In her podcast, Telling the Truth for Women (episode posted 1/3/2023), Jill Brisco quoted a book by an Australian pastor called Wisdom which includes a chapter called the “Cultivation of Stupidity.” (She did not name the author and I could not definitively identify the book.) The pastor gives 7 steps to foolishness. Jill Brisco matched each step to a verse in Ecclesiastes, which is about acquiring wisdom:
1. Don’t think.
Ecc 2:14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them.
2. Never be serious.
Ecc 2:2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”
3. Do as you feel.
Ecc 2:10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.
4. Make stupid friends.
Ecc 5:11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?
5. Learn nothing from experience.
Ecc 4:13 Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.
6. Never change your mind.
Ecc 10:2 A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left.
Ecc 10:3 Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.
7. Criticize continually.
Ecc 10:3 Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.
How do we acquire wisdom?
9Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. 10The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. 11The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. 12My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. – Ecclesiastes 12:9-14
Something to think about.
If you have read this book, please let me know who the author is.
Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash