Tag: fool

Posted in History & Literature

Satire

Posted on by Jinavie

독소(獨笑) (To Laugh Alone)

有粟無人食 (유속무인식) 
A household with great wealth lacks children, 

多男必患飢 (다남필환기) 
A household with many children is poor, 

達官必準愚 (달관필준우) 
Those who are at high positions are idiots, 

才者無所施 (재자무소시) 
Those with talent have no way to develop them.

家室少完福 (가실소완복) 
A house with complete luck is rare to find, 

至道常陵遲 (지도상릉지) 
Great morality is bound to fade away, 

翁嗇子每蕩 (옹색자매탕) 
If the father is thrift then the son is prodigal, 

婦慧郞必癡 (부혜랑필치) 
If the wife is wise then the husband is foolish.

月滿頻値雲 (월만빈치운) 
When the full moon is out the weather is cloudy, 

花開風誤之 (화개풍오지) 
When the flowers are at full bloom the weather is windy. 

物物盡如此 (물물진여차) 
Such is how everything works. 

獨笑無人知 (독소무인지) 
There is no one who knows the reason why I am laughing.

~ Dasan Jeung Yak Yong (a Korean academic from the late 18th century)

Posted in History & Literature

Election

Posted on by Jinavie

If you think of an election as a game, it is a rather fascinating game. Let us pretend that you are a player participating in a game called Elections. As a player, what is the most rational decision you can make?

The obvious answer is to not vote on the day of the election and do something else instead. As elections tend to be decided by a significant difference in the number of votes between parties, the probability that your single vote will make a difference is near 0. Ergo, instead of wasting your time submitting a vote that will have virtually no effect on the results, you are better off doing something more productive.

However, despite this, there are fools who vote in every election. The fools’ votes pile up and make the world keep on moving forward.

Posted in Philosophy

The Truth Lies Within The Finger

Posted on by Jinavie

A wise man points at the moon, but the fool looks at the finger. (Chinese proverb)

The wise man explains that his finger is not important and what should be looked at is the moon, but the fool carefully listens to him and thinks that he is a very good speaker. (a modern adaptation of the proverb)

The wise man pleads the fool to look at the damn moon, but the fool is only afraid and does not look up. (a very modern adaptation of the proverb)

The wise man finally gives up talking about the moon and instead starts talking about his finger, which he thinks the fool will be more interested in. The fool then says to himself, that the wise man is someone who is able to explain his own stories to others in an easily understandable manner, and that he can talk about any subject – even a random thing such as a finger. (an even more modern adaptation of the proverb)

When the wise man dies, the fool asks himself: “So really, what was it the wise man tried to explain to us lifting his finger so high?” (the ultimate adaptation of the proverb)

(from Paradise by Bernard Werber)