WHO IS WISE?
A British author, William Ralph Inge, once said:
“The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things.” To grasp the meaning of this statement, consider the following example.
A student has an exam to take and leaves home on time to reach school. On the way, an ignorant boy confronts him and insults him, making the student angry. If the student reacts out of anger and gets into a fight with the boy to take revenge, he might be delayed enough to miss the exam hall, which could cause him to lose an entire year.
Similarly, imagine someone has an important journey to make. They leave home to reach the train station and board the train to arrive at their destination on time. But along the way, they get into a quarrel with someone. If they continue to argue, they may be delayed and by the time they reach the station, they may find that their train has already left.
Consider these examples. The immediate problem for both individuals was the direct conflict they faced: being insulted or wronged by someone. This was the aspect of the situation that was directly visible at the time. However, there was also a hidden aspect that was not immediately apparent but could be understood by a discerning person. This hidden aspect was that if they engaged in the conflict and tried to punish the offenders, the result would be losing a much more significant benefit—failing to reach the exam hall or the railway station on time, and thus depriving themselves of a greater advantage for the sake of temporary emotional satisfaction.
In the statement mentioned above, this second and less visible aspect is referred to as the relative value of the matter. The first aspect—namely, the wrongdoing committed by the aggressor—is obvious to everyone. But the second aspect, or the relative value of the situation, can be perceived only by a person of deep insight, someone who makes decisions through thoughtful reasoning rather than momentary emotions.
The system of the current world is such that these two aspects often appear in many situations. An unwise person only sees the immediate situation and acts accordingly, making their own situation worse. A wise person is one who can see the other dimensions of a situation—who can rise above the immediate circumstances and perceive the deeper realities which, although not present at the moment of the event, eventually emerge and become decisive.
The modern world tests this kind of wisdom. Those who prove wise in this area will succeed. Conversely, those who do not demonstrate this wisdom are likely to face failure.
