Society, Opinion And Perspective

THE CROW AND THE SHEEP
A troublesome Crow sat herself on the back of a Sheep. The sheep, much against his will, carried her backward and forward for a long time, and at last said, “If you had treated a Dog in this way, you would have had your deserts from his sharp teeth.” To this the Crow replied, “I despise the weak, and yield to the strong. I know whom I may bully, and whom I must flatter; and thus I hope to prolong my life to a good old age, (FABLES, AESOP, SIXTH CENTURY B.C).

One can never assume that everyone they come across reacts or responds in the same way to character stimulus. I know this sounds a little cliché, but no matter how much we’ve heard about how people are really very different in perspectives and opinion, we still make the mistake of thinking we can make people think and act the way we do. There are many kinds of people; choose to deceive, outmaneuver, outsmart or cajole some, they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge for hurting their ego. These are the wolves in lambs’ clothing, be careful never to offend this bunch and the ability to distinguish wolves from lambs, hawks from vultures, and foxes from hares is critical to our existence. Deal the same blow to every person you come across, trust me you will live a life of constant regret and frustration, if you even live that long.

During my time in the university, I had this circle of friends; close we were, we partied together, studied together, had fun together. There was one of us though who was a little bit too insecure, so much that he always took mild jokes too personal. Long story short, our friendship with him is not as solid. I will now list some categories of people we might have come across from time to time, and we can fit our friends, family and acquaintances into any of these categories.

The Hopelessly Insecure Man: People like this are hard to spot, but like my friend above it’s easy to identify them when they take jokes and whims personal. These people will attack back in little bites that will take forever to get big enough for you to notice. Please do not offend people like this, and when you do anyway, be sure to stay away from them for a very long time.

The Arrogant and Proud Man: Any man with just a little bit of touchy pride and/or ego is very dangerous when offended. These are the ones that will overreact when their ego is threatened. Don’t bother trying to figure out this person, there is no sanity in their actions.

The Serpent with a Long memory: These ones are quite dangerous; no show of the hurt-emotion makes them the ultimate destroyer. Usually they act cold, uninterested and unaffectionate but these are just fronts for how they truly feel inside. They wait patiently for the perfect time to have the last laugh.

Mr. Suspicion: People in this category are boring to be around since everything must revolve around them. They see only what they want to see-usually the worst-in other people, and imagines everyone is after their downfall. People like this are not dangerous; they however never completely trust anyone around them, which just makes them awkward.

The Plain, Unassuming, and Often Unintelligent Man: These are the rarest kind of people one can come across, usually because humans generally do not like looking stupid. People like this will deliberately act unintelligent and uninformed to make you feel in charge, when in fact they counting all your wrongs, and waiting the day they may pounce.

When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet. (FROM A CH’AN BUDDHIST CLASSIC; QUOTED IN THUNDER IN THE SKY, TRANSLATED BY THOMAS CLEARY, 1993).