Characteristics of the Unwise - Wisdom of the Vikings Part 13

Worry

The unwise man

is awake all night

worries over and again.

When morning rises

he is restless still,

his burden as before.

Face Value

The unwise man

assumes that only

friends laugh to his face.

At the table with the wise

he cannot tell

what they say behind his back

Note: This is part 13 in an ongoing series (the series starts HERE) bringing together the Hávamál (a collection of Norse wisdom poetry) and the still-evolving rules and mores of the Internet, particularly as they are developing in the realm of social media.

Because humans are a social species, we all have a tendency to create a sort of mask of false-self which we use to interact with our world. We "prepare a face to meet the faces that ]we] meet". Of course this makes vulnerability, relationship, and connection far more difficult to achieve and plenty has been said about it already—if you are interested I would recommend the work of Brene Brown. Certainly the Vikings are not a culture with which we generally associate vulnerability. The same ought to be said of social media and internet culture. 

Living in the context of a functional anarchy and without the protections of a state, reputation was more important for the survival of a medieval Icelander than it is for most of us today. As a social species, we are fundamentally dependent on one another and threat of social isolation is ultimately existential. People literally die as a result—both direct and indirect—of social isolation. The psychological upshot of this human dynamic is to reinforce the urge to guard our reputations closely, to put great effort into defending our names and characters. 

All of that is natural and the degree to which it is true in modern off-line meat-space society is intensified by an order of magnitude in the contexts of medieval Iceland and the social internet. 

And yet, the best option—at the end of the day the only workable option—is the massively counter-intuitive choice to embrace authenticity and vulnerability. As the wise among the Vikings remind us, it is the unwise who "is awake at night over and over again". Bring to mind that person who is so afraid of being seen to have been wrong that she cannot ever concede a point in a discussion, or that friend who can never graciously accept a single barb as his expense. Have you noticed that they seem to become almost tone deaf online? Have you noticed those people (the unwise) who think they are "winning" when to every reader they are only making greater and greater fools of themselves?

At the table with the wisehe cannot tellwhat they say behind his back.

So take a breath. Be willing to be seen. Admit when you are wrong. Be quiet when you could talk sometimes. And be willing to walk away when you need to. Don't stay up too late replaying a discussion, trying to formulate the perfect answer. When morning comes you will still be restless.

A Time to Speak and a Time to Listen - The Wisdom of the Vikings Part 10

Don't be like this

Bad Manners

At a feast

the fool chatters

or he stares and stammers.

Just as soon as

his jug is full

ale unveils his mind.

Experience

He is truly wise

who's travelled far

and knows the ways of the world.

He who has travelled

can tell what spirit

governs the men he meets.

Note: This is part 10 in an ongoing series (the series starts HERE) bringing together the Hávamál (a collection of Norse wisdom poetry) and the still-evolving rules and mores of the Internet, particularly as they are developing in the realm of social media.

As we have worked our way through the Hávamál, it has become increasingly clear that the wisdom structure within it relies heavily on an Aristotelian style virtue ethic (click back to Part 9 for a good synopsis of virtue ethics). The aphorisms all apply but sometimes may seem to be contradictory due to the fact that the situations differ. In one context, the wise thing may well be to avoid confrontation, whereas in another situation it is all but necessary to engage as thoroughly as possible. The first situation calls for the virtue of discretion while the second requires boldness or courage. Critically though, any application of virtue ethics requires a controlling virtue of discernment, what Aristotle referred to as practical wisdom (phronêsis). 

These two poems do a good job of establishing both the necessity and basic process for acquiring discernment. In the first, we get a picture of the person who lacks discernment—the fool. The character who, in medieval Iceland, distinguished himself by talking first and noticing later, or attempting to engage beyond his depth - talking and chattering just as soon as he relaxed into his drink, is just about as easy to spot online. This is the character who seems to have something to say before he even reads the comments thread, the individual who is sharing her "all important, epic takedown" which turns out to be a banal or fallacy-filled scree. One of the troubling things about the fool is that fools rarely recognize their own foolishness - they are proverbially "wise in their own eyes". Internet fools, like Viking fools, are recognized as such by others long before they see their own foolishness. 

Wisdom will be recognized —
it doesn't have to be asserted.

In these two poems, the Hávamál offers the, remarkably un-sexy, reliable cure to fool-dom—experience. The virtue of discernment—that power to recognize the quality of ones own thoughts, as well as others as well as when it is and is not appropriate to share those thoughts—cannot be bought for gold or silver. There is not quick and easy method for obtaining it (though if you can get a sip of the mead of the Gods that might not hurt). One has to experience the relevant world. The best advice at this point is to probably assume that "being new" = "being a fool", though that should be taken far more as a rule of thumb than as some sort of ontological proclamation. A second piece of advice (though it does not show up in these two poems) would be to be humble whenever possible. One clear difference between fools and the wise is that fools are far more likely to make sweeping declarations where the wise ask questions and hedge their statements (though this too can be taken too far but that is a question for another post). 

So take some time, read all the other comments before you post anything critical, and stick around to see how the conversation goes. Thank others for their input and the read some more.

Click to get the Hávamál on Amazon

Click HERE for Part 11