Wise Fools

Which do you hold more faith in?

The wisdom of crowds?

Mob stupidity?

I think a lot of credit has been placed in the Wisdom of Crowds, often undeservedly. The most unobvious but visible examples of it are in telephone polling (for Big Brother or other reality shows) or in ‘Ask the Audience’ in some quiz shows on television. They depend on a certain level of general knowledge or certain memes being represented and in the former certainly are ultimately swayed by the portrayal of individuals by manipulative editing of the source material and post-production manipulation of crowd opinions by the traditional media.

The problem with crowds is in the manipulation by meme. Memes spread quickly through a crowd and their adoption is viral among online crowds (like Twitter clouds or mailing lists). I have come to respect the virtues of the Wise Fool instead.

While the Fool may not be learned, he may be earnest.
While the Fool may not respect tradition, he may see innovation
While the Fool may mock others, he may be honest.
While the Fool may be frivolous, he may have passion.
While the Fool may be simple, he may have vision
Because he is a Fool, he has freedom.