The Creative Contrarian

Wise Fool Strategy # 20Shed an Illusion

“Shedding an illusion can make you wiser than discovering a new truth.”

— Ludwig Börne, German Philosopher

If the Wise Fool has a guiding belief from which much of his philosophy emanates, it would probably be something akin to this section's opening words from the 19th-century German philosopher Ludwig Börne. Indeed, all of the Strategies invite us to let go of one way of thinking and to seek out alternatives.

Wise Fools believe that it is their job to point out the things that we believe to be true but which are actually illusions. Or, as the American humorist Will Rogers put it in a more homespun way:

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we do know that ain't so.

Wise Fools understand that it takes a degree of humility to discard an idea you once thought was beneficial but which is no longer valid. From this shedding, wisdom arises.

Here is the classic example of something humans believed to be true that turned out to be an illusion. From the beginning of civilization, one of humankind's most basic truths was that the sun revolves around the Earth. That this was true was easy to verify: a person could walk out his front door and confirm it with his own experience. Each day he would see the sun rise in the east, circle high overhead at noon, and then set later in the west. For millennia, this commonsense ...