The Final Speech of the חכם

In the final speech of the חכם, we see how far he's come since the beginning. At the beginning he was a realist. He told the נהנה that death is reality, asked the עמל why he was so angry, and told the יראי אלוקים he was just far too righteous.

In this section he replies again to the three characters.

First he replies to the נהנה. He tells him that he's loud - he might be able to convince people to follow him but he's an idiot. No one should pay attention to the fool. Wisdom and intellect are what's really amazing. Fools are leaders because their loud, they make their presence known. DON'T LET THEM INFLUENCE! One hit by the fool will destroy the good, just like a dead fly destroys perfume. For חכמה to be heard, it has to be perfect, but there won't be perfection with the fool. Not even the voice of reason can overtake the loud fool.

Then he replies to the עמל. The חכם just blames G-d for how the world is run - that foolishness outweighs חכמה. Everything is all topsy turvy. The יתרון is חכמה. He lists analogies of people who have nothing to show for their work because it was ruined by lack of חכמה. The עמל may want to build - but he's nothing without חכמה and the חכם.

Finally, he replies to the יראי אלוקים. The חכם thinks that the יראי אלוקים's suggestion of a 2-tiered system of justice is foolish because man doesn't know what will be, and who will tell him? The חכם is an agnostic - he's not a complete atheist, but he's not going to act or think differently, he's not going to take that leap of faith. They're essentially in a stalemate.

He concludes by saying that our society's run by fools, there's a lack of wisdom so they can't build. If they had wisdom and insight - society would be successful.

We see he's evolved from before because in פרק ז he was a realist - he turned to all of them and said: don't be frustrated, the world's imperfect, just think, and be smart. Now, they all made him look at the world and he gets frustrated. He's getting angry: "If I were ruler, everything would be good." Now he too is trying to strive for perfection.