Proverbs 1:20-33
New International Version
Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;at the head of the noisy streets she cries out,
in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:“How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?If you had responded to my rebuke,
I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.But since you rejected me when I called
and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,since you ignored all my advice
and would not accept my rebuke,I in turn will laugh at your disaster;
I will mock when calamity overtakes you-when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
when distress and trouble overwhelm you.“Then they will call to me but I will not answer;
they will look for me but will not find me.Since they hated knowledge
and did not choose to fear the LORD,since they would not accept my advice
and spurned my rebuke,they will eat the fruit of their ways
and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm.”
Barbara W. Tuchman
The March of Folly (p. 7), Ballantine Books, 1984
Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts. It is epitomized in a historian’s statement about Philip II of Spain, the surpassing wooden-head of all sovereigns: “No experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its essential excellence.”
