Well said, Sarah. Let me refer you to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison. He makes an interesting point that helps to explain why the West has become so self-destructive. It is in the section entitled "The Past Ten Years," in the subsection entitled "Folly." He says that folly is perhaps the greater threat to good than …
Well said, Sarah. Let me refer you to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison. He makes an interesting point that helps to explain why the West has become so self-destructive. It is in the section entitled "The Past Ten Years," in the subsection entitled "Folly." He says that folly is perhaps the greater threat to good than malice. Malice, he says, can be exposed. One can even stand against it by force. But folly cannot be touched by protests and force. Even reason is useless against it. It remains undamaged by reason and argument. Reasoning with a fool, he says, is both futile and dangerous. He had cause to know, for fools had put him in prison, and the malicious would eventually execute him.
His words strike home to me as I see what is happening in our culture. There is malice enough to go around, to be sure, but what makes that malice so effective is the folly of those who tolerate and protect it. They will foolishly extend their protection even in the face of reason. So, we have made ourselves fools so that we refuse to stand in the way of malicious evil; instead, we surround it as fools to protect and disguise it. So Bonhoeffer tells us to recognize folly for what it is. “To deal adequately with folly it is essential to recognize it for what it is. This much is certain, it is a moral rather than an intellectual defect. There are men of great intellect who are fools, and men of low intellect who are anything but fools, a discovery we make to our surprise as a result of particular circumstances….”
Well said, Sarah. Let me refer you to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison. He makes an interesting point that helps to explain why the West has become so self-destructive. It is in the section entitled "The Past Ten Years," in the subsection entitled "Folly." He says that folly is perhaps the greater threat to good than malice. Malice, he says, can be exposed. One can even stand against it by force. But folly cannot be touched by protests and force. Even reason is useless against it. It remains undamaged by reason and argument. Reasoning with a fool, he says, is both futile and dangerous. He had cause to know, for fools had put him in prison, and the malicious would eventually execute him.
His words strike home to me as I see what is happening in our culture. There is malice enough to go around, to be sure, but what makes that malice so effective is the folly of those who tolerate and protect it. They will foolishly extend their protection even in the face of reason. So, we have made ourselves fools so that we refuse to stand in the way of malicious evil; instead, we surround it as fools to protect and disguise it. So Bonhoeffer tells us to recognize folly for what it is. “To deal adequately with folly it is essential to recognize it for what it is. This much is certain, it is a moral rather than an intellectual defect. There are men of great intellect who are fools, and men of low intellect who are anything but fools, a discovery we make to our surprise as a result of particular circumstances….”