Wise Fool
Jesters played a crucial role in courts throughout history. There's a reason why most rulers had them around. Have we forgotten the importance of jesters and being playful?
Who Is Not a Fool?" ["Qui non stultus?"] —Horace (65-8 B.C.), Satires, 2.3.158
The jester is a universal character. We see them crop up in pretty much every civilization including medieval and Renaissance Europe, Persia, India, China, Japan, Australia, Russia, Africa, and America. Their function was much more than being a clown and entertainer of the court. "He could be juggler, confidant, scapegoat, prophet, and counselor all in one."
Rulers understood the value of having jesters in court. They helped them save face and provided valuable, unfiltered advice. Unlike other members of the court, jesters were the only ones that "could speak freely without offense." Jesters used laughter as a weapon to disarm even the most unreasonable of tyrants and diffuse tension in the court.
"Among the Murngin tribe of Australia it is the duty of the clown to act outrageously, ludicrously imitating a fight if men begin to quarrel. In making them laugh at him, he distracts their attention from their own fight and dispels their aggression." - Beattrice Otto, Fools Are Everywhere
Laughter has a way of putting things into perspective. Great leaders understood the importance of humor. However, the practice of having jesters in court died out around the eighteenth century. Why have we abandoned this valuable practice? If rulers and courts were allowed to laugh it off, why can’t we?
Why so serious?
We’ve come to dismiss the importance of playfulness in most professional settings. We confuse being serious with being professional and, crucially, attribute seriousness to our success.
Somewhere along the way, we are led to believe that if we are playful others will think we are a fool. Some may very well do, but I believe many more would appreciate it if we were. As a result, we may become a catalyst for others to be more playful - a welcome jester in their life.
Being less serious could also help us become better at what we do. It is a crucial part of the process of learning from our mistakes. If we can’t laugh at our faults, then we have likely not fully accepted them. If we can’t accept mistakes, we can’t learn from them.
Too much seriousness is likely a sign of hubris. It makes us rigid, less agreeable, and paradoxically, more likely to fail again. Just like jesters kept monarchs’ ego in check, we too can avoid the pitfalls of pride by introducing more playfulness in our lives. If kings and queens are allowed to make mistakes and laugh at them, why do we think we mortals can’t? The jester (humor) helps them (and us) fall graciously.
In the absence of having jesters in our boardrooms, schools, and homes, we can still entertain the idea of introducing more playfulness in modern-day courts. As counterintuitive as it may seem, being confident enough to laugh at ourselves may be the best therapy to help us in our professional and personal development.
The tyrant inside us
"We have all seen how an appropriate and well-timed joke can sometimes influence even grim tyrants. . . . The most violent tyrants put up with their clowns and fools." —Desiderius Erasmus, Praise of Folly
It seems that we’ve forgotten the vital role of jesters (i.e., playfulness). Not surprisingly, a growing share of workers is unsatisfied at work today. Work has become, well, just not that fun. Menial and unfulfilling labor has existed throughout history. So what explains the discontent in today’s society? Perhaps it’s related to the level of seriousness in work and other professional environments.
“In Man’s Search for Meaning,” Viktor Frankl chronicles his experience as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive experience. Prisoners could be stripped of all their possessions and denied basic rights, but guards could not crush their positive outlook on life - a key to their survival. “At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful.” I would argue that playfulness allows us to find meaning.
If playfulness is vital to our success and survival, then why do we eschew the jester practice from modern-day courts (i.e., work)? Quite simply, why do we become more serious as we age? Have we forgotten how important this practice is?
I’m certainly not suggesting you go about being a clown next time you show up to work. It’s more nuanced than that. I’m advocating that you wake up the internal jester we all have. That is, the ability to laugh it off. Doing so, and we would be quick to realize that things are really not as bad as we think they are, or serious as we make them out to be. Not doing so, and we risk being tyrants, self-reprimanding and showing no self-compassion.
Humor can help us release tension and see things our ego would otherwise blind us to. We are constantly setting new goals and holding ourselves to higher standards. That’s not necessarily bad, although I argue that we are better served if we focus more on upholding our values and less on goal-setting (here).
Being more playful is a practice that would do us well. Not doing so and we risk becoming too rigid, too serious, and putting ourselves in a fast-track to burning out. Laughter is vital to our personal and professional development.
"Now, though laughter may be regarded as a trivial matter, and an emotion frequently awakened by buffoons, actors or fools, it has a certain imperious force of its own which it is very hard to resist. . . . It frequently turns the scale in matters of great importance." — Quintilian
Wise Jester
We see children embrace this inner jester - they are playful and curious. They alternate between crying and laughing at their mistakes. I believe we can continue this healthy practice into adulthood.
As I reflect on a new decade ahead, I'm also close to wrapping up my twenties. During this time, I graduated from college, started working at JPMorgan, and now spend my time investing in startups. Somewhere along the way, laughter and humor became less frequent. With age and success, came more responsibility and (self-imposed) pressure. Being professional (and successful) was synonymous with being serious. Like a tyrant of sorts, I became fearful and guarded with my emotions. But I had no jester around like them to make me laugh a little more.
I’ve set out to recover this lost jester, and carry it with me into my thirties and beyond. In particular, I’d like to have him around in what I consider the most serious aspects of my life (work, sports, writing). I realize that my best writing tends to happen when I'm more relaxed, I enjoy exercising more when I'm not stressing out over my next race, and find work more fulfilling when I laugh at my mistakes.
I wrote about the importance of asking why as a way to introspection (here). And so, I’ve asked myself why I’ve become less playful. Better yet, why can’t I be more playful? Inverting the question made me realize that nothing is stopping me from bringing back the wise jester - a little more humor - into my life. It’s been liberating.
Homo Ludens - Born to Play
In "Homo Ludens," Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga defines play as "the central activity in flourishing societies." Games play a central role in our development. A defining characteristic of humans, playing is equally important as reasoning and making/innovating.
The wisest of rulers had jesters around. That practice has been largely abandoned. However, we all have inner jesters that we can call upon from time to time. Remember, jesters are so much more than jugglers and comedians - they are valued confidants, prophets, and counselors that make life in court just a little more entertaining and worthwhile.