Tame the devil

We all like to believe that we are good people. More than that, we want others to believe that we are good. And to achieve it, we go to any extent; we become pleasers, fakers, liars and many more things, writes Riteish Deshmukh.

We all like to believe that we are good people. More than that, we want others to believe that we are good. And to achieve it, we go to any extent; we become pleasers, fakers, liars and many more things.

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As humans, we are a discriminatory species. We apparently have the most developed brain amongst animals... And we do use it very well! But for what? Usually, to camouflage the devil within us.

I was taught “be nice to people and they will be nice to you”. But hierarchy often dictates niceness. You don’t mind going that extra mile to be nice to your boss, but that mile suddenly won’t stretch more than a meter when it comes to your junior. A rude comment by a senior is received with a smile, but an over-friendly gesture by a subordinate will result in his or her being shown the door. It might be a bitter pill to swallow, but we all have the same pattern of behaviour.

We are all bitches (Farhan, nothing against female dogs!). Things we can’t say to people face-to-face, we happily vent behind their backs. The devil in us jumps out to bitch, knowing that the person concerned can’t hear the bark. I call it a bark and not a bite as you need to confront a person to be able to bite!

Our bitching instinct has been abetted by the Internet, which gives people access to a world of infinite possibilities. No one can see you and no one can judge you, thereby making it easier for your dark side to emerge. The cloak of invisibility protects you as you prowl under a fake identity. Those who want to misuse this, are empowered by the fact that they cannot be traced easily. So they think they have a license to be obnoxious, abusive, venomous and at times, perverse, at social networking sites. These devils need to be tamed before they unleash their peculiar brand of hatred and insensitivity. We are the masters of our own destiny. We have the capability to be nice, or nasty. Life is a balance between the two, but it never hurts to have an overwhelming tilt towards niceness.