How Highly Sensitive People Control the Rest Of Us
Reasonable people are constantly being controlled by those who are unreasonable.
It’s an odd ability of weakness that it often finds a method for domineering over strength. In society at large, as well as in close relationships, there are demands made on the basis of sensitivity. In response to injury and insult, it is not uncommon to cast blame or react with aggression. However, the threshold for what is injurious or insulting is often decided reflexively and arbitrarily. Any behavior can be deemed impermissible on the basis of perceived harmfulness.
Bullies tend to be very aggressive. They can respond to nearly anything as if it were an intentional provocation. They do so as an act of strength and domination, making clear that they’re not to be trifled with. Yet, in just as many instances, you can find the inverse playing out. Across from the schoolhouse bully is a child so quick to tears that nothing even slightly negative can be said to them, lest they fall to pieces. One is made to constrain their words and behavior around the individual that is overly fragile just as much as when around the one that is overly aggressive.
In the culture of the present day, as we progress to a more sympathetic and tolerant society, we act to enforce our modern values…
