The Parade of Fools

I wonder if the inventors of television ever imagined the impact their creation would have on the world. I wonder if they speculated how people would become slaves to massive flat screens projecting larger than life characters portraying disproportionally emotional dramas, or high school caricatures, or superhuman sports heroes. I wonder if they could see the end from the beginning. I doubt it. They were probably way more engrossed in the science of it, and possibly even the perceived utility of such an advanced form of communication.

Have you ever noticed how most new technologies are pursued and funded under the guise of goodness? Case in point, we humans invented the television and we called it social progress, able to bring the far reaches of the world into our living rooms; and yet, the kingdom of darkness has perverted it and made it a sewer pipe for pop culture - a “how to” manual for rejecting God’s will for humanity. “[God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). We once were able to point to news programs and say, “Well, there’s at least one type of broadcast that’s good,” but, sadly, even the so-called “news” is no longer given to us in integrity.

I wonder about other inventions that have been funded on the promise of goodness. Build a new military technology to protect the nation and, ultimately, it becomes the club we use to bend the rest of the world to our own will (which, unfortunately, isn’t aligned with God’s). Create social programs to help the needy in the spirit of, “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him” (Proverbs 14:31), and ultimately we end up with a society full of entitled, crippled, government dependents. In the name of “love”, in the spirit of, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14), we create new forms of “tolerance” which ultimately open the door to broadly sweeping perversions like gay marriage and celebrating transgenderism.

We are assaulted daily with ideas that are so far removed from God’s divine perspective that, in our weakness, we take pause and wonder if it isn’t we who are perverted. We aren’t. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Word is designed to protect us, which is precisely why it says, “do not be deceived” over and over. For example, Paul warned the Corinthians, who Americans closely resemble today, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals’” (1 Corinthians 15:33). The real war has never been waged on battlegrounds that test the ingenuity of military invention; rather, it is waged between our own two ears! Satan knows that if he controls the thoughts of man, he controls the world. Our job is to see past the lies, to see through the parade of fools, and think with integrity to the Truth.


Do not be deceived. Do not allow the parade of fools to cloud your judgment. It’s a facade, a ruse, a trick to sow doubt in your soul. Where are yesterday’s heroes, I ask? Where are the so-called conquerors of our time? You might say, “There they are, all lined up in the media!” But I say, look closer, past the amorphous blob of fame and makeup, past the collective imagery that has been carefully cultivated by the social puppeteers. What you’ll see, when you scrutinize the scene, is that although the faces haven’t really changed, the names have. Today’s victors are tomorrow’s cast offs; yet the parade carries on. The world consumes people’s souls with a voracious appetite as it grants them a place in the show, only to defecate them unceremoniously and then point to them as failures. Those are real people piled up there on that shameful dung hill. They are the fools who purchased a lie and have paid the price for it. They no longer have a face in the parade, only memories of a promised glory that was never meant to be.

Victory is transient in this world. For believers, it is eternal.

Do not be deceived into thinking there’s anything good in this parade of fools. It’s a grotesque display of human nature in the absence of God’s saving grace. May we learn to discern the details of it, see it as it passes us by in its worldly “glory”, and steer clear of it.




This parade will continue until this era of human history is over. Satan and the kingdom of darkness will continue to take advantage of the weak, lying to them, and then throwing them away like dirty rags. Sadly, there will always be an ample supply of hopefuls willing to backfill those whose time in the limelight has run out. The carnage will continue until God puts it all right in the end. Do not be impressed by those whom the world elevates in stature, for their “victory” never lasts; rather, understand what you’re seeing, allowing the Word of Truth to illuminate your mind, and transcend the lies. Do not play the fool.


Love in Christ,

Ed Collins