Useful Idiot, Genius, Fool, Joker?

Over at our latest SA post, The Synthetic Matrix?

We Nattered: "Again, I am an idiot albeit a useful one at times, and what we know is next to nothing."


Mitch Zeitz commented: "Again, I am an idiot albeit a useful one at times"


You're either an idiot or a genius... I just can't tell which. Thanks for another fantastic read!


GhibliNewt commented: "You're either an idiot or a genius"


"Mitch, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

It often takes a genius to ask the questions only an idiot would think of and vice versa. The true idiot has no pride, no fear and no risk and therefore can discern truth where others are blinded to it. Think The Fool in Shakespeare's King Lear."Prithee Nuncle...""

The Nattering One muses... Most astute as both genius and fool are madmen. Another name for the court jester was the fool or Joker.  Someone who acted imprudently, sometimes for entertainment.  A fool refers to one who can be perceived as an unwise person or a madman.


The term "useful idiot" is a term for people perceived as supporting a cause whose goals they are not fully aware of. Blind supporters who are used cynically by the leaders of a cause as dupes. As a form of self-deprecation, I jokingly and sarcastically use the term "useful idiot" to play the fool.  You can call me fool or...




Flip things upside down, push notions to the extreme. In the face of adversity just keep on truckin, break down the status quo, searching for weakness and uncertainty. Joker am I? Why?


Needful things seek answers and above all, seemingly stable forms of comfort and assurance. Uncertainty and chaos lead many lacking confidence or of questionable ability to control their own destiny, to become targets for propaganda and anyone who wants to manipulate them to advance an agenda.  


Confusion, the unknown, FUD, fear, uncertainty, doubt, so many questions. Faith and hope are commodities amply available at any political rally, religious revival, or local house of worship. All of the above can lead one to this...

Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,Rid me of the problems, do all that you can,Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin' strong,You don't want to save me, sad is my song.
When you believe in things you don't understand, T
hen you suffer.. Superstition ain't the way, yeh, yeh.
Just a stumblin, rumblin, bumblin seemingly blind fool. A real Joker, keeps stirring the pot, churning it up and navigating the imagination to divine ideas while honoring randomivity, for that uncertainty is rife for invention.

Monet, Manet, Renoir turned the art world upside down.  Find the weakness - a lack of realism - and celebrate it. Fool or genius?


Sam Walton, first locate the warehouse in the cheapest place you can find, locate the stores later. Madness?? Low cost supply chain distribution eventually cut the throats of all his competition including the locals. Fool or genius?


Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire.

A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him. 
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux - The Art of Poetry (1674) Canto I, l. 232 

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish. - Aeschylus


Mitch is correct, pride and fear are horse blinders. Unusual, unexpected, unconventional, contrarian, unabashed, ever utilizing inversion and absurdity with perseverance. Play the fool much? What have you got to lose? I maintain that being a Joker...




is a bit art, science, even magic trick...




 and as I always say.   Stay tuned to the bandwidth or frequency, stay thirsty my friends.

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