Of Selfish, Human, and Manipulation
I felt like as if I were on a sinking Titanic last week. Comparing what I experienced to one of most disastrous accidents in human history is an exaggeration, of course. But hey, hyperbole is created for one purpose, isn’t it? So, if you are reading this and intending to continue, prepare yourself for hyperboles and metaphors, like HYPERBOLES AND METAPHORS. Yes, I type those in upper case.
Okay, back to being on a sinking Titanic, the comparison doesn’t come out just because hyperbole and metaphor are my favorite figure of speech, it’s because the dynamic is similar. You went to a somewhat a dream trip, iceberg happened, people panicked, the ship broke into two, some people were saved, some people didn’t make it. I got a job that I want as much as I want a scholarship, then shit happened, people panicked and broke into tears, some people keep the job, some don’t. See the similarity of its dynamic? Apart of the romantic plot ‘Draw me like one of your French girls’-esque and people actually died, it’s more or less the same. Some people got to hop in to limited numbers of lifeboats, some people got left out on a sinking ship, some people still have job, some people don’t.
Just like people on Titanic, each different person reacted and handled things differently, some people decided to keep doing their job, some people retreated to their families, some people got access to lifeboats while some didn’t, nevertheless, they chose their own way to their end since death was knocking on the door, whether death got you or not, that was something to be thought later.
And being on a sinking ship for a few days got me observing quite many things.
Do you really think because the captain and the musicians kept doing their job they were a bunch of honorable people? Or because they knew it was honorable plus memorable thing to do, therefore they did it, so, in the end, they would be remembered as honorable people?
Take a look at the mother who put their kids to bed before the water drowned them. Has it ever crossed your mind that it was more an act of giving up than an act of love? And she let her kids have no choice but giving up with her.
And that elderly couple, they were good. They probably knew they wouldn’t last much longer in life even though they survived anyway.
And those who already got access to lifeboats, and perhaps, not giving any care to those who were still on the sinking ship, or maybe they care, but they didn’t want to give their place in the lifeboats. And those people who fought their way to a seat on the lifeboats. It was not wrong. Everybody wanted to be safe in that kind of situation, and once they were safe, they wanted to keep it that way. Not everyone wanted to be on the higher moral ground.
You might applause Rose for jumping out of the lifeboats, for whatever the reasons might be. A symbol of love, a symbol of stupidity, you name it. She did what she wanted, she didn’t give any flying fuck what Jack and other people thought.
It’s not wrong to want to be remembered as honorable people, it’s not wrong to give up, it’s not wrong to be safe. It’s not wrong to fight. It’s not wrong to be selfish.
Selfish is our very nature as human. Apart of civilization, thinking before acting is something that separates us from animal, that’s what we are told. But, we overlooked selfish. Unlike thinking, selfish is frowned upon in us as human, whereas selfish is a part of survival of the fittest guided by instinct, something that is so primal and familiar in us, human, the race on the top of the so called food chain, in fact, we wouldn’t be on the top of the food chain without survival of the fittest mindset. Selfish is in our core, whether we want it or not.
Add selfish with thinking, it becomes manipulation, no matter to ourselves or others.
When manipulation chimes in to play, that’s where human brings out the worst of them. With manipulation comes lies, covered truths, distrusts, and we’re gonna watch the world burn, if we are not in it.
