The fool card from Gareth Knight's Tarot
The great Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid wrote a profound phrase in his A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle when he vowed to avoid "The cursed conceit o' bein' richt that damns the vast majority o' men".
The dialect bein' richt = being right and you see this 'cursed conceit' everywhere; in real life and on the internet. It is what fuels the evil of cynicism (and cynics make the best bureaucrats, all senior managers are recruited from ex-cynics).
It is also the habit that blocks so many Christian conversions. An atheist feels that people would regard him as stupid, naive, gullible if he was to accept an 'obvious' fairy tale ('flying spaghetti monster') like Christianity.
Supposing, he thinks, I anm wrong about this? What will happen?
Then everybody will think I am a fool, and nobody will ever 'respect' me again!
For intellectuals, especially, not being thought a fool seems to be the prime motivator.
Yet, being prepared to be thought a fool is the basis of genius!
A genius essentially does not care if 'people' think he is a fool - because his motivations and convictions are inner (and divine).
Being prepared to be thought a fool is also the basis of sainthood.
Most real saints were widely regarded as fools (or else frauds) - some even courted the status - but they did not allow that fact to stop them doing what they regarded as most important.
For anyone publicly to affirm the side of God, Good and creation; of truth, beauty and virtue; of spirit, soul and the supernatural - is (nowadays) to be generally regarded as a fool (as well as evil).
We should not be deterred by the fear of making a fool of ourselves in the eyes of Men - otherwise we have already joined the other-side.
Nearly everybody I respect as being on the right side in the spiritual war is, or would be, regarded as a fool by most.
All truth-seekers and truth-speakers must (here, now, 2021) be prepared to make fools of themselves: this is not an option.
Conversely those who regulate their behaviour so as Not to be regarded as fools (and who advise others to regulate their behaviour likewise) are - by that fact - self-destined for damnation.
