Good point! Kudos to Black Mage! ;)
1. Don't trust anyone fully. Maybe family, that's about it. It is said that a true friend stabs you in the front. Of course, not trusting this "friend" results in you not being stabbed at all.
--It also allows you to not have any true friends. A back-stabber (er..."front"-stabber) was NEVER your friend. A bad friend tells you what you want to hear, even if you're wrong. A GOOD and TRUE friend speaks the truth in love, and WANTS to help you get it right.
2. The Golden Rule works fine; that is, if you don't know the person in question. If you do, the Platinum Rule takes precedence. This rule states:
"Do unto others as they have done unto you."
--With that attitude, you're just as bad as them. Have you ever actually TRIED the Golden Rule? The results are surprising.
3. Everyone has a place in the world. People, in order to be at their fullest potential, should find the thing they are best at and refine it until it becomes useful to others.
--I actually agree with you on this one.
4. Murphy's Law applies to everything.
--With that attitude, I'm sure it will. But that's because your undying pessimism only allows you to SEE the worst in every scenario, while most things DO have some good light to them, though some may be disguised quite well.
But what about when something GOOD *DOES* happen? Breaks the Law of Murphy, now, doesn't it?
Very rarely is there a situation in which the worse DOES happen. If you think about it, FAR worse of a thing could have happened.
Example: 9/11/01. Terrorist attacks. THIS is the WORST that could've happened:
--The first plane could have crashed a lot lower in the tower, trapping and killing all the people above. Instead, it hit much higher, killing giving most of the people a chance to escape.
--The time between the first and second crash could've been closer together. Instead, while the plane DID crash lower, it gave enough time for most of the people in the second tower to evacuate.
--The towers fell STRAIGHT down from their spot. They could have fallen in another direction, destroying MUCH, MUCH more in the process.
--The 4th plane which crashed in Pennsylvania. The plane WAS heading toward D.C., which is assumed to be a planned attack on our Nation's Capitol. Instead, the people on the plane figured out what was going on and were able to stop them. They DID lose their lives, but they were also heroes. The plane crashed in a remote area. It could have been a major populated area. THOUSANDS of more lives could have been lost, had it crashed in a populated area or continued its destination to DC.
While a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE disaster occurred, by FAR it could have been MUCH, MUCH worse.
5. Don't judge others by what they like; judge them by what they ARE like. (I typed this one.)
--Again, I agree with this one. But hate the sin, not the person.
6. Tact is the #1 deterrant to progress. When people today ask for your opinion on something, they are really asking "What do I want to hear from you about it?" Tell people EXACTLY what you think about something.
--Again, I agree. Some situations you have to weave your way around, or you COULD get into serious, unnecessary trouble.
7. People in the world are classified under three categories: Those with one chance, those with 0 chances, and those with an infinite number of chances. The number of chances you get is directly proportional to the amount of money you have. Other factors play a role, though.
--Untrue. While some seem to be "luckier" than others, everybody ALWAYS gets at least one chance, in fact more. God ALWAYS gives us a chance. Whether we chose to ignore it or accept it is our own doing.
Black Mage already pointed out #8.
9. The importance of your life to others is inversely proportional to the amount to are appreciated for it. For example, teachers get maybe $40,000 a year for radically influencing a child's life, Basketball benchwarmers make 13 times that for doing nothing but sitting on a bench and watching basketball games.
--'Tis a twisted society we live in, no?
10. The ultimate goal of society is to make everyone equal by making them unequal.
--A little extreme, there. I see your point, though. By treating everyone equally does NOT make it equal. Fairness and equality are essntially opposites. Everyone is different, so trying to make us all the same would be unfair and unequal.
Example: Let's say there's a family with three grown children. One is in a serious financial crisis because of someone else's evil, manipulative doing.
EQUALNESS would be helping the one kid in crisis by giving them some money. Then, in order to make it "Equal," they would give the same amount of money to the other kids who are not in financial need. While that is EQUAL, it is not FAIR.
FAIRNESS would be giving the kid who needs money in their time of need, while leaving the other two out of it. FAIRNESS would be that the parents would help out the other kids if THEY ever got into that situation. It would NOT be fair, however, if the parents were never willing to help the other 2 out if they were in a crisis.
Example 2: Billy and Sally both got A's on their report cards. Mom gives them each a reward.
EQUALNESS: Both get to go to the shooting range. Did same rewardable thing, so they get the same reward. Billy LOVES to go to the shooting range. For Sally, it's more of a punishment. Equal, but not fair.
FAIRNESS: Billy gets to go to the shooting range, since he loves it. Sally gets to have a new video game, because that's what SHE loves. Not equal, but fair. (BTW, those examples are something my brother and I would chose as our "reward" for something. :) )
And THAT took me 50 minutes to explain.
--------------------
Deep inside us all is a little green elf telling us to burn things.
Edited by - Sapphira on 5/25/2003 11:25:34 AM
