Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Wise Man

A bit different than an oracle, you have the titular wise man who everyone looks up to and respects for his great wisdom. Whether or not this man is getting his wisdom from a supernatural force is unimportant. The fact that he has something to say and that everyone listens to him speak these important words is enough for him to be given the title.

Wise men are not prophets. They do not know the future. However they may be able to foresee the future based on what they know of either past events or human nature. People listen to him say completely common sense things and act as if they had never thought of such things before. It doesn't take long for the people to forget these words of wisdom though. Why? Well... if they remembered everything, what would they need the wise man for?

The problem with the wise man is they often do very little within the world but simply put out these words. And sadly, what they say is often a rehash of a previous piece of advice. The reason for this is because a wise man is still one man. He is not so much the bearer of great knowledge but just someone who knows how to spin a few ideas in so many ways that it leads people to think they are hearing new and fresh things each time. It works fine with small minded people, at least.

In fairy tales, a wise man is often given a high position. However this high position is often rather secluded. Sometimes the phrase "high position" is taken literally, and the wise man can be placed at the top of a high tower or mountain. This forces the protagonist to go through great trials just to hear one man speak. The words the wise man says is supposed to be the one thing the protagonist needs to hear, yet I am still left wondering what it means to purposely put oneself out of the way like that.

The wise man on top of the mountain is often placed only as high as his own personal ego. He believes that seclusion benefits the clarity of his powerful and wise thinking mind, but it only allows him comfortable counsel with the one whom he enjoys the most, himself. And despite how friendly he seems, I calculate that there is a misery to being all alone up there, while the humans down on earth are working on their own things despite whatever the wise man has to say.

And I think that's the big problem with wise men. People always listen to them, but nobody really learns from them. They will sing his praises for speaking with a certain poetic wit, but common sense is either going to come to them or not based on who they are. I see people give praise to people who speak candidly without actually learning a blasted thing at the very same time. This rather strips the wise man of power due to his apparent irrelevance. And on the other side, the wise man was pretty much an unrelatable hack to begin with.

Remember that wise men are just men. They may be old and hairy but they can only say things based on what they know. They will spout off life experiences in an endless stream of repetitive, rehashed poetry, but at the end of the day, it is up to you to judge life for yourself. Let the wise man sit upon his mountain. Let him ramble on endlessly about the life we honestly already understand. Form your own conscious and, at the end of the day, make sure your decisions are your own. The wise man won't be joining you. He's been up there too long, and the ladder apparently fell apart. Poor guy...

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