What would you say if someone asks you: "Who do you think you are?". Rather patronizing, but overall meaningless query, isn't it?. There's no intelligent answer to such an inane question, but it sure tells you a plenty about an enquirer. It usually bears testimony to his arrogance, self-importance and prejudice. A person, who only accepts the status quo and is unwilling or unable to think outside the box. Those are the people who have no doubts and they make most of the others at least uncomfortable, if not miserable. They truly believe, they're always right which by their reasoning gives them power to control and indoctrinate the others. The most scary part is, that repulsive human qualities such as these, combined with the limited intellectual faculties often produce a foolproof recipe for a success. A classic template for a ruthless jerk.
But enough of them, let me tell you about something far more interesting - about me.
Once in a blue moon I get blessed with an inspiring thought, appealing enough to sit down and unfold the initial blip into a short essay. I've never received a formal literary education and I'm not delusional enough to think I could ever became a real writer. I have no other ambitions than to share my ideas and observations with a few friends, who are patient enough to read them through. The subjects I choose for my stories are random and much diversified. At some occasions I'm trying to be funny or intentionally silly, and at other times I'm dead serious. To emphasize a satirical point or to push the readers buttons and provoke a debate, sometimes I resort to spinning the facts a little bit or I even make up a whole fictional circumstance from the scratch. And it works well to my advantage, that opinion articles offer vast creative possibilities and unlike a reporting journalism don't limit an author to stay within straight facts. Naturally, I never expect, people would always appreciate my sentiments or conform with my views, but I hardly ever seek out reader's approval. I just simply can't presume, everyone would see the world through my eyes. Years ago I've worked with an well educated female colleague, who scornfully resented any publications by one of the greatest Czech humorists Jaroslav Hasek. She described his work as vulgar, unfunny and overall poorly styled. Yet generations of readers including myself admire Hasek's brilliant literary talent and his ageless wit. Even the peerless American novelist Ernest Hemingway was once castigated by British writer Wyndham Lewis as "dull-witted and infantile". As the old proverbial saying fitly claims: different strokes for different folks.
For some time I've been in an infrequent long distance e-mail pen-pal relationship with a middle aged, well-read and slightly eccentric woman from across the world. We've never met and most likely never will, yet - based strictly on my various views and conclusions, she looks up to me in awe, declaring my ideas ingenious. Notwithstanding that such a statement sounds quite flattering, I know too well it takes much more than I have to be called a genius. Beyond doubt, there's no shortage of sophisticated people with far superior intellectual and creative abilities than those of mine, nevertheless, I'd like to believe, I'm not just a scatterbrained simpleton either. Over the years, I developed quite fair observation skills and I never rush to quick conclusions. When I'm confronted with a predicament, I prefer to "sleep on it". As I've learned along the way, almost nothing is painted only black or white. Therefore, in an effort to produce the most objective judgment I try to examine the issue from the different angles and all the available stand-points. And even than, no matter how strong my opinion might be, I never make it final. I'm always open for a discussion and if presented with a sound argument, I have no problem to revaluate and overturn my initial summations. In the same context, I highly disregard ignorant people who offer no opinion on their own, yet they have nerves to discredit anything anybody else have to say.
Just the other day, someone trashed my articles as stupid and stinky, failing to elaborate on his "constructive criticism" by presenting a single valid and unbiased feedback. Bothering to analyze his motives or to speculate on a state of his simple mind would be a waste of time. I only could feel sorry for him.
When thinking about human qualities, one could not ignore how intriguing this subject might be. Is there a reliable measuring stick to assess where the level of mediocrity lies, who falls in the average category, and who's above or bellow? These criterias can only exist in relation to some man-made standard norm. If we could disengage ourselves from these artificial models, we won't be able to compare anything to anything and for that our lives would be so much easier. Lets assume, you're the sole inhabitant of the planet Earth. How would you know if you're tall, short, fat or thin, clever or dumb, beautiful or ugly? A comparison evokes most of the negative human emotions: low self-esteem, envy, hatred, sense of inferiority and powerlessness. Pursuing these skin-deep concepts is clearly waste of effort and energy, which could be used better and in the much more productive ways. But... we're only humans, aren't we?
Milo.
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