On the ship of Fools
Wisdom from the dog star.
Ital is vital….
We are on a sinking ship of fools.
"I won't slave for beggar's pay
likewise gold and jewels
but I would slave to learn the way
to sink your ship of fools"
“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of
the Son of man be.”
King James Version (KJV)
Matthew 24:37 Context
34 Verily I say unto
you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no,
not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. 37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be. 38For as in the days that were before the
flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the
day that Noe entered into the ark, 39And knew not until the flood came, and
took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40Then shall
two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
So sad it seems we will not beat the odds.
The ship of
fools is an allegory,
originating from Book VI of Plato's Republic,
about a ship with a dysfunctional crew:
Imagine then a fleet or a ship
in which there is a captain who is taller and stronger than any of the crew,
but he is a little deaf and has a similar infirmity in sight, and his knowledge
of navigation is not much better. The sailors are quarreling with one another
about the steering––every one is of opinion that he has a right to steer,
though he has never learned the art of navigation and cannot tell who taught
him or when he learned, and will further assert that it cannot be taught, and
they are ready to cut in pieces any one who says the contrary. They throng
about the captain, begging and praying him to commit the helm to them; and if
at any time they do not prevail, but others are preferred to them, they kill
the others or throw them overboard, and having first chained up the noble
captain's senses with drink or some narcotic drug, they mutiny and take
possession of the ship and make free with the stores; thus, eating and
drinking, they proceed on their voyage in such a manner as might be expected of
them. Him who is their partisan and cleverly aids them in their plot for
getting the ship out of the captain's hands into their own whether by force or
persuasion, they compliment with the name of sailor, pilot, able seaman, and
abuse the other sort of man, whom they call a good-for-nothing; but that the
true pilot must pay attention to the year and seasons and sky and stars and
winds, and whatever else belongs to his art, if he intends to be really
qualified for the command of a ship, and that he must and will be the steerer,
whether other people like or not––the possibility of this union of authority
with the steerer's art has never seriously entered into their thoughts or been
made part of their calling. Now in vessels which are in a state of mutiny and
by sailors who are mutineers, how will the true pilot be regarded? Will he not
be called by them a prater, a star-gazer, a good-for-nothing?
The concept makes up the framework of the 15th century book Ship of Fools (1494) by Sebastian Brant,
which served as the inspiration for Hieronymus Bosch's
painting, Ship of Fools: a ship—an entire fleet
at first—sets off from Basel, bound for the Paradise of Fools. In literary and
artistic compositions of the 15th and 16th centuries, the cultural motif of the
ship of fools also served to parody the 'ark of salvation' as the Catholic Church was styled
For I am The True Pilot
-Ital Iman I
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