Symptoms of a Fool

Michael Patrick Murphy talks about earthly foolishness.


Discuss the following symptoms of foolishness with a friend or lover. Discuss it with a stranger, teacher or mentor. Don’t exclude the white lies you or others have told. Don’t include areas where you do trust religions, governments, the markets, banks or spouses and lovers. The reason these elements of your life all exist is that folks do trust them to some degree.
I knew a fella once that told me we are not that far out of the cave yet. He was referring to Plato’s cave. I thought that was brilliantly said. In a “Few Good Men” Jack Nicholson stated to the court that, “You can’t handle the truth.” Perhaps he too was right.

Symptom #1 - You trust a Religion
Wearing the title of Catholic, Protestant or whatever, means you wear the brutality and stains of that religion, too. While you may trust they won’t hurt you in Church on Sunday doesn’t mean there was never an inquisition or witch trial or that Christians in Rwanda were immune from lopping off each other’s hands.
Symptom #2 - Trusting a Government
Basically, like religions, governments become the tools of the rich and powerful to control the masses and to keep them in their pockets. Sure, you may like them the day you get your tax refund, but really trust them? A brief survey of history clearly demonstrates the opposite view.
Symptom #3 - Trusting the Stock Market
When the market was about to crash in the 70’s our government illustriously allowed us individual retirement accounts and 401K’s with tax benefits to encourage folks that knew next to nothing about what they were to invest in to enter the stock market and save the day. Mutual funds were being bought with the kind of trust the ancients put in gold. Perhaps the ancients were onto something?
Symptom #4 - Trusting a Bank
The banks got us into almost all economic messes in history. They have ruined governments and even a religion or two They control both. They will take your home, your country and your planet.
Symptom #5 - Trusting yourself or someone else
People follow their emotions 9 times out of 10—maybe more. The thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to think and plan ahead to a degree that we can actually control our emotions that lead us to instant gratification, the republican party, casinos and stock markets. Can you really trust you? If you can’t, can you really trust anybody else?


Things here sound pretty bleak. Just remember that it is not whether we trust totally or not. Trust is based on each situation and requires that you use your head. You can trust that the Democrats will run a candidate in the next election, but can you trust the candidate? You can trust that your wife probably won’t have an affair this week, but does that mean forever? Trust is elusive, so it means that you must always be vigilant and worthy of trust yourself.

Folks love to talk smack about religions, governments and spouses. Unfortunately, they gravitate towards blind faith like a security blanket. They have no faith in Congress, but they keep re-electing democrats and republicans anyway. So lastly, can you really trust mankind? An element of skepticism is obviously necessary to your safety and security. This does not mean that you are a conspiracy theorist, but it certainly means that conspiracies are certainly not impossible. The rich and powerful have always banked on the ludicrous nature of mankind. So should you.





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