When a society shows idiots too much respect,
It’s the warning sign it begins to accept
An increase in their type we can’t seem to neglect,
It’s a rising of fools over straight intellect.

And the more we concede our renewed interest,
Only broader it seals their right to profess
Any stupid idea, repainted as quest,
Any false claim or deed always stirring a mess.

How do we shut down a jerk in a free society,
When it makes a despot of who’ll bear the duty ?
It seems better we first check our own opinions
And beware if they turn in the wrong direction.

Otherwise, it’s a question of civil balance ;
All these grounds we give up on knowledge and science,
Only gaining the slightest of all conciliations :
We are losing on truth, for the sake of the nation.

When a citizen shows for ignorance respect,
It must be an alarm that we’ve come to accept
Our decay in culture ; and for lack of prospects,
How we made a failure of that « global access ».

It’s the freedom of fools in the shade of progress,
A minority’s rule forced on everyone else.
It’s the making it cool of that buffoon’s pretense.
And it’s taking the room of our most common sense,
When we show idiots way too much of respect…

When we show idiots way too much of respect.

(Painting : « The laughing jester » – anonymous -)