Essays in Idleness

The hint I dropped yesterday, on the Eve of this Feast of Fools, was a distinction between the “holy fools” and the “unholy fools.” This extends much beyond politics and did not, in fact, originate in that. It goes back to the Garden of Eden, and the foolish behaviour of one tempted woman, and one tempted man, inclined to believe her. But it is my habit generally to avoid the theological depths, for fear that I might fall in.

The Celebrated Fool dates back only eight centuries, to Saint Francis of Assisi, who became Holy Fool of the West, “a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature, and with himself,” in the words of Pope Francis. In the painting by Giotto, he is feeding the birds, and in imitation of him environmentalist politicians have spent many trillions, feeding “Gaia” and the other gods of earth, sea, and sky — very foolishly.

Or there was the yurodivy, of Russia: outwardly quite eccentric but inwardly wise, who did not cost us very much; or even among the Muslims, the apparently mad. (I met one of these in upcountry Pakistan; he threw a brick at me.) The Christian accomplishment was to sort the many fools presented by abundant nature into holy and unholy, by their fruits. This was Christ’s analysis.

There are many other kinds of Fool, such as Royal Fools (consult Shakespeare on this, and the broad mediaeval tradition); it is a vast multiculture. Today, as we celebrate the Fools in our own past, present, and future, including ourselves in all of our seasons, I should like to append to Christ’s distinction a specific fiscal observation.

It is that Fools should not cost us extravagant amounts of tax money. For those who cost other than themselves are not only Fools, but tedious.