While looking up information on the aforementioned Wizard’s Rules to see whether my guess of “Confessor”‘s theme was accurate, I stumbled upon an interesting explanation of the First Rule that was apparently given in the book:

“People are stupid, they will believe anything, either because they want it to be true or because they are afraid it is.”

Wizard’s First Rule: Chapter 36, Page #397, US Hard Cover (revealed by Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander).

* Explanation by Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander: “People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.”

(Wikipedia)

It is clear from the explanation that I owe somewhat of an intellectual debt here. The rule itself doesn’t even need explicit mention (we’re all stupid, and all genius is but a lesser form of stupidity), but the explanation is helpful. One of the foundational principles of my “panidealist” philosophy is the inability to fully estimate the objective range of applications of an idea. This is a particular flavor of the last sentence in the explanation (although I strengthen “rarely” to “never”). Although that principle was largely observed from experience (it was practically shoved down my throat whenever I attempted to explain my research on the divisor function and I would have thought of it, Wizard’s Rule or not, because it was simply made so clear to me again and again), this doubtless counts as an additional influence on that aspect of my philosophy. Credit where it’s due; I’ll cite Goodkind in my Treatise 🙂