Sociology: Fools in the Old Days

Note:
This is a post on July 19, 2014 from my friend Justin Clay's facebook page Good Morning Creatures. For more such posts, read Justin Clay's entries on facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/Goodmorningcreatures

Good morning creatures,

I recall a very great little tome I snatched from the Galveston library, I owed late fees on it, and a book about owls and some really cheesy travel DVDs I had checked out in June of 2008, but alas, I would not return these items, or pay the late fees because a hurricane rolled through town and demolished the library and my little garage apartment. So I wound up unintentionally saving a book of Yiddish folk tales. A reoccurring story in the book was the tale of Ashem, Ashem the fool. The story always went the same,

Ashem used to utter autistic things and hurt himself accidentally, and often times it was some sort of play on words, like, " they told Ashem to fetch a pail of water and put it on the stove. So Ashem grabbed the pail and poured it on the stove and filled the house with steam."

Every time he did something foolish he was, and I would like to directly quote this because it was the most memorable part of the book... Yes, every time he did one of his foolish things he was, " beaten soundly"

I don't remember if it even explained who beat him. It just wanted you to know he was corporealy punished for his foolishness. And I have to say, it was pretty entertaining, in a wry and grim sort of way.

But to be a fool. I mean, a fool, so foolish you have made it into legend, wow, what an accomplishment.

There isn't much space for fools nowadays is there? They would likely be given aderol or taken to counseling, or just plain ignored.

But in the Middle Ages, was not the fool an integral part of the power structure? Every king had a court fool. A professional fool. A fool that used to frolick around like a pied ninny with bells and make fart jokes and juggle and skirt on the edges of offense and entertainment.

I can see there are some who are trying to revive the concept of making a living being a fool, but it is a fine line, you see, the fool of the Middle Ages played for two audiences at once, and a true craftsmen he was, because if he failed, if he offended the king I guess they would decapitate him or at the very least throw him in the dungeon. I think the guys in Jackass would have all been sentenced to death by now, cause, they're not fools, they're jackasses.

But I think the fools of yor, even Ashem, were quite cunning, they told riddles with their skits, they made examples of everyone equally, they were the pioneers of that archetypal fool hearty quality of the human spirit that rushes headlong off the ravine of society and pretends as they fall that they are a bird, and then...

They actually fly. Or they fall with such a grace and good humor that the overall effect is like they flew.

Note:
This is a post on July 19, 2014 from my friend Justin Clay's facebook page Good Morning Creatures. For more such posts, read Justin Clay's entries on facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/Goodmorningcreatures