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Businessman Artur Shehu breaks his silence: I am a long-time land owner in Zvërnec, I don't know the investors at all

Albanian businessman Artur Shehu spoke on the Opinion show...

Don't make way for the fool, we'll make way for the fool!

2026-02-13 08:46:00, Opinione Ardi Stefa

When you make way for a fool, you do no honor to an individual. You set a precedent for stupidity. And stupidity, when legitimized, has a bad habit: it sits at the head of the table.

Human history, and especially that of small societies like ours, has shown that the greatest harm comes not from intelligent evil, but from empowered fools. Because evil knows how to hide. Fools don't. They act with confidence, with noise, and with a strange sense of mission.

When you open the way for a fool, he takes it as a right. Then as a merit. Finally as property.

Literature has said it much earlier

In Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote of La Mancha," tragicomedy arises precisely when a man immersed in illusion takes himself for a savior knight. The problem is not that Don Quixote is mad; the problem is that the society around him sometimes tolerates him, sometimes encourages him, sometimes uses him. And so his madness becomes a public spectacle that produces real harm.

Individual illusion becomes collective chaos.

In George Orwell's novel "Animal Farm," sheep repeating meaningless slogans are the purest example of the open road for the fool. Sheep are not evil. They are simply ignorant and manipulable. But for this very reason they become the most powerful weapon of power. Whenever someone tries to speak intelligently, the flock of sheep drowns them out with their mechanical howl.

A fool does not rule alone. He always has a choir.

In "1984," the same author takes the idea further: a society that accepts stupidity as the norm begins to fear thought. Where the fool is promoted, the wise become dangerous. Because every question seems like a threat, every argument like rebellion.

Lasgush Poradeci once said, "Never give way to a fool, or he'll take the sidewalk."

While Dritëroi wrote that it is a great misfortune when a fool is overly convinced that he is the wise one and you are the fool.

Thus begins the inversion: mediocrity is rewarded, ability is punished.

When a fool makes way for an institution, he pushes away the capable. Not because he necessarily hates them, but because he feels threatened. Mediocrity always seeks out mediocrity around itself in order to avoid being seen.

When a fool makes way for politics, he turns decision-making into a spectacle. Argument is replaced by jokes. Vision is replaced by propaganda. And in the end, decisions are made not on logic, but on the basis of interest and impulse.

When a fool opens the way in society, he becomes a role model. This is the greatest harm: the normalization of ignorance. Young people no longer try to be knowledgeable, but noisy. They do not seek depth, but appearance. Because they see that the way is not opened for the best, but for the noisiest.

The end is always the same.

The fool knows no bounds. He knows no restraint. He does not understand when he has done enough harm. Therefore, every space he is given, he expands. Every power he is given, he abuses. Not necessarily out of malice, but out of an inability to understand the consequences.

And when society finally wakes up, the damage has been done: institutions have been weakened, standards have collapsed, truth has been relativized.

Therefore, the rule is simple: Kindness does not pave the way for a fool.

Every path that opens to him is closed to the wise./ CNA