Gods do not protect fools.
Fools are protected by more capable fools.
-Luis in Larry Niven's Ringworld
This is another sentence which took a few minutes to register. But once it gets into you, you can not forget it. It seems to be analogous to the The Peter principle formulated by Laurence J. Peter which states: "In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." Larry of course goes one step ahead and states why that is so.
The incompetence is patronized by the clients - us. Various social evils are a direct consequence including, but not limited to bribery.
Whenever you let go a foolishness under the name of compassion or whatnot, you are being a greater fool. A positive and gentle criticism may go a longer way in avoiding further foolishnesses.
By no means should you be not forgiving or protecting. Just ensure it does not lead to a higher order foolishness.
BTW, Ringworld is a wonderful sci-fi novel.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment