Thoughts of a fool
is plenty of love in the world, it is not true that the reason it is
manifestless is because of its shyness. My heart tells me that the
world’s knowledge stands in the way of the world’s love. It is the
people who know that make it hard for the people who don’t know, but
who feel.
There are people who know things, and they know them because it has
been told them by their teachers and their parents, and they have
records of the same from men of the past; and the people who have made
the records know it to be so because they were told by their teachers
and their parents, who heard it from their teachers and their parents;
and these last will in turn impart it to their children and their
pupils, that they may know the antiquities. They have the records
carved in stone to prove that what they say is true. They are the wise.
They are the people who deal in well-established houses which have
stood the test of time; they are the ones who will not risk being taken
in or swindled.
They buy old paintings, old books, old furniture,--buy them because
they are old and therefore must be good. When they purchase anything
modern it is done only after long discussion and on the judgment of the
critics--who know all things.
When they give anything to charity it must be the old and well
established. They are the foremost in charity balls, church fairs,
and subscriptions for the Red Cross Society. If they give you a
subscription for something untried and new, they will give it to you
only on the indorsement of so many other names. They will say, “I will
subscribe if you will get twenty other influential people to do the
same.” They are always afraid to be alone in a thing--always want to
be with the crowd. They are very careful of their actions; it might
hurt their social position. In the world of ideas they get the oldest
ones--and the older the better; and they will surely be angry with you
if you disturb any of their ideas.
I know that I don’t know a thing, and this knowledge is so rooted
within me and absolute that even when a number of the wise tried to
teach me something, I found after they were through with me, that they
did not succeed in convincing me that I know any more than I did
before they started to educate me; although they did convince me that
they themselves not only know nothing, but are unreasonable as well;
for it stands to reason that when a person asserts that a certain
thing exists, he should furnish proof when called upon that the thing
he says exists, really exists. When a man claims that he has certain
knowledge on a certain subject, and on the strength of this knowledge
he wishes to be considered wise, he ought to be ready at any time to
produce evidence that he is actually the possessor of that knowledge.
And so, thought I, when I asked them for proof, that they would gladly
furnish it. But they fooled me; which, of course is proof that they are
fools. Does it not take a galvanizer to galvanize; a wisdomite with a
stock of wisdom to wisdomize you? So it takes a fool well supplied with
foolishness to fool you. They asked me to prove that they didn’t know
the thing they claimed to know. While their reasoning is illogical,
still it is logical, because it takes a person who knows that he knows
not to impart that knowledge to others; and they in turn know not.
I am an expert in my line. I am awfully proud of the knowledge I
possess; it is concrete--I can transfer it. After I tell you, you too,
as well as I, know what I know; therefore I can be independent with
what I know. I do not have to ask you to come to me before you go
elsewhere; the fact is, I urge you to go the rounds before you come to
me. After you have swallowed all the others can supply, and consider
yourself wise, then if you come to me, I will examine you and let you
show me what it is that you claim to know.
That I know that I do not know, no one is disputing. That I know
nothing is granted. The disputed point is your claim that you know
something; which, of course, is not true. You have simply forgotten
that you do not know; and with my convincing knowledge that I do not
know, I transfer that knowledge to you, by asking you to forget that
you have forgotten that you do not know; which is equivalent to still
not knowing. Here is where we stand: I don’t know anything about
anything, and I know that I don’t know. My discussions, therefore, are
about things I don’t know; and as I don’t know anything, therefore I
can discuss anything. You also don’t know anything, but you think that
you know something, which you discuss; therefore, you are limited to
the thing which you think you know. But in reality you also don’t know
anything and as all of us do not know anything, our system of life,
which is based on knowledge, is faulty, because we have no knowledge to
build it on.
Come, let us reason together. How I got here I don’t know! What I am
here for I don’t know! Why I should not love everything my love wants
to love I don’t know! Why I should not gratify my love I don’t know!
Why I should make myself believe that I know lots of things which in
reality I know not I don’t know! So I admit that I don’t know! Why I
should worry my head with lots of things I can’t use I don’t know;
therefore I don’t! Why I should plan and scheme a life for myself
after I die I don’t know; therefore I don’t! Why I should become
patriotic and kill people I never saw, or get killed by them, I don’t
know; therefore I don’t! Why I should reverence the opinion of men who
don’t know any more than I, although they say they do, I don’t know;
therefore I don’t! Why I, an intellectual parasite, should consider
myself superior to one of the other kind, I don’t know; therefore I
don’t! Why I, one kind of a thief, should prosecute another, I don’t
know; therefore I don’t! Why I, a fool who knows nothing, should
distrust Life that placed me before all other animals of the earth,
I don’t know; therefore I don’t! Since I don’t know why I should not
trust to life, and seeing the result of Life’s accomplishment without
my intellectual aid, I “let” the Life which is in me, and of which I am
a part, guide me. Instinctively it impresses me with the finale of the
things I need. Of course “instinct” is not the proper tool with which
to forge conclusions in this practical world. The intellectual method
is to reason from a premise, then by degrees get nearer and nearer,
and the end reached would be the conclusion. Not being intellectual,
I start with the instinctive conclusion; and then my intellect takes
the step which must be taken to bring me to the conclusion already
concluded. Therein my reasoning is different from the rest of the
reasoners’ reasoning. But who cares?--the things which will make me
happy, I seek; the painful ones, I avoid.
I love because I love to love! I get pleasure from loving, and why
should I ask more? So you see, by not pretending to know anything, Life
knows me better than you know Life by pretending you know something
which you do not. So I let Life do my work--or Life’s work, it matters
not which it is. The whole universe is ready to help me; while you,
in knowing, everything is against you; and as you do not know how
to manage Life you are a failure. I am happy and you are not. You
are afraid while I do not know what to fear. Ignorance, you say, is
the cause of fear. That is not true. Fear is composed of unreliable
knowledge. You are not afraid of nothing; you are afraid of something.
If that something exists, it is then sensing danger, which is not fear;
when that something does not exist--like ghosts--then it is fear; and
only people who know and believe in ghosts are afraid of them. Not
knowing anything which is not so, I sense danger, but have no fear.
I don’t worry, neither do I regret. Why should I regret? If I have done
something which resulted in painful experience, by avoiding repetition
I make amends. As regretting takes the time which should go to make
amends, therefore regretting injures instead of helps. So, if you
really regret, you will not regret, but make amends; but if you keep on
regretting you really don’t regret.
WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?
A setting hen on a quota of duck eggs, by diligent application to her
business, will hatch out ducklings. She’ll produce you goslings on
a capital of goose eggs. It’s what’s inside of the shell that will
count in the long run. There’s some comfort in knowing what to expect
under given conditions, and by understanding the egg law you upholster
yourself against the hard blows of surprises.
As you sow so shall you reap. Why should you be surprised that we
have all about us an element that is growing stronger, fiercer,
louder--which threatens to upset all we hold dear to civilization?
You do not understand how it befalls that in a country like ours,
so bountifully freighted by nature with all that makes for human
well-being, there should be discontent rampant. While our workmen have
each a full dinner-pail, what warrant have they to take up with such
fads as anarchism, socialism, single-taxery, trade-unionism, and the
like? How comes it that these ignorant people should allow themselves
to be swayed by heresies that threaten to undermine the peace of
society? Well may we tremble for the future!
The “divine right of property” is being impugned; the expediency
of land-ownership is being challenged; our homes are in danger; the
family, the very root of social cohesion, is threatened; and even
the holy kitchen stove is in danger! Not an institution exists whose
_raison d’être_ is not under scrutiny.
The wisdom of God--nay, the very existence of deity--is questioned, and
bold inquiry challenges creation. Everywhere society is conscious of
peril. You see these things and you marvel. Your face has a look on it
like one standing outside of the grocery store trying to recall what it
is that he has forgotten.
How could it be otherwise?
What could Laban expect in mutton futures in view of the transaction he
made with Jacob, his prospective son-in-law, in the first and second
degrees?
You remember the story, how the wily old sheep-raiser palmed off Leah
on the young fellow when it was Rachel he was after; and how he had to
put in seven more strenuous years to pay for Rachel.
In this old Bible story of Jacob and his dealing with Laban is a moral,
embodying a lesson for society.
Jacob’s revach (or rake-off, in modern vernacular) after Laban had
unloaded the ladies upon him, was to consist of all the spotted
and speckled lambs. Rake-off was ever the mother of ingenuity, and
Jacob promptly discovered a process to induce sheep to beget spotted
offspring. He tried a game of psychologic suggestion on the mother
sheep during bearing time. He set up lines of twigs with the bark
peeled off in spots, which gave the sheep mothers a speckled point of
view, resulting in a larger than ordinary percentage of off-color lambs.
This may look like a “dirty Jew trick,” which none of our best people
would countenance, and the discovery of such chicanery by any member of
the board of trade would probably subject him to prompt expulsion, and
serve him well right, of course, but what could Laban expect?
There is an irrefragable law back of Jacob’s formula.
Whatever ideals you place before sheep of any country will secure
their respect and adherence. Your mudsill may not achieve all that
your hero has attained, but he will approach as nearly to the ideal as
his power will admit of his doing. You do not want our lowlier classes
to be anarchists and communists and insurgents, yet you point to the
anarchists and communists and insurgents of other days with fond pride
and unmistakable admiration.
We must remodel our Pantheon. There are too many speckled twigs in the