27. Feigning Foolishness
“Feigning foolishness” is a stratagem where you pretend to be foolish or insane in order to confuse your enemies. This is to prevent your enemies from knowing your intention and motivation. By feigning foolishness, you let your enemies underestimate you, leaving them to be overconfident, thus creating a weakness for you attack. Best to act foolish than to brag and act recklessly. By plotting secretly without being fathom, you are unstoppable.
Feigning foolishness is also used to save your own life. Best to be thought stupid than to show that you are intelligent which the enemies will see you as dangerous. It is a psychological warfare of perception and deception. By deceiving your enemies, you will be able to make yourself invincible while making your enemies vulnerable through their overconfidence. That is what it means to be “feigning foolishness“.
