How to cultivate foolishness

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