In our frustrations, we something say that “Things are upside down.” Herewith some words about that from two different traditions. The first quote comes from Seeker After Truth, by Idries Shah (Harper & Row, 1982), p. 38-39:
Mundane things, and this includes emotional stimuli which are often imagined by very devout people to be religious, are pursued by means of this desire, this coveting [mentioned above]. It is evidenced by the fact that the thing desired acquires a great importance in the mind of the victim, rather as one desires possessions, importance, recognition, honours, successes. To distinguish real objectives from secondary ones the Sufis have said: “The importance of something is in inverse proportion to its attractiveness.” This is the parallel of the negligence with which people often fail, in the ordinary world, to recognize important events, inventions or discoveries. That this is appreciated in day-to-day matters is perhaps evidenced by the appearance of this statement in a London daily newspaper recently as “The importance of a subject can be judged by the lack of interest in it.” [The daily is Daily Mail, March 17, 1979, quoting one P. Butler.]
The second quote comes from 1 Cornthians 3:19; it is by the Apostle Paul:
For the wisdom of the world is folly with God.
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