If you have not read part 1 please do so. You can find it on my blog published on Wednesday, January 21st
Two, it hardly detracts from the achievements of incredible people; it is just a temporary salve for individuals in societies wounded egos. Most of the time when these people get dragged down it has nothing to do with their achievements or commitments to their goals. When Tiger Woods was at his prime he decimated golf courses that would give other professionals fits. Tiger Woods today still makes money hand over fist so people can watch him play golf. Hardly anybody on the planet could become as good at golf as Tiger Woods was, or is now. Just because he had some relationship troubles doesn’t mean that we are anywhere close to what he has achieved. Arnold Schwarzenegger built what many believe is one of the most ideal body shapes of all time, then he learned to wreck the American box office while delivering one of the most famous lines in all of cinema, then he became a Governor of one of the largest states in the union, all after being born in Austria. A few relationship issues do not detract from the absolute insanity of achievement uttered in the prior sentence. Even though he got dragged through the mud Schwarzenegger has achieved more in one-third of his life than most of us will achieve in our entire lifetime. The truth is that these men have done absolutely incredible things with their lives. As an individual you can either try to tear them down by looking at their failures, making your ego feel better, or use their successes as examples for your own life.
The third problem this toxic belief causes is societal unhappiness and discontent. This witch-hunt non-sense shows that people are continuously comparing themselves with others. Because it is a societal movement it becomes abundantly clear that this comparison is happening on a massive level. This continuous comparison of yourself to others is only negative. Comparing yourself to others is a recipe for a toxic life. When you compare yourself to others you live in a way that is not true to yourself because you are not living up to your standards you are living up to theirs. Now, it is easy to let societies tell you what to believe, what your morals should be, because then it means you don’t have to think about the hard things. However, the recipe for a happy life requires you to figure out the hard things. To be happy humans have to find their place and live by their standards. I always say the hardest thing I’ve ever done is leaving the church. When I left I had to examine every one of my morals. I had to consciously discern whether I believed that moral because I was told to believe it or because I believed it for myself. Then the beliefs I was told to believe I had to create a new mental construct for. I am far happier now than I was then because I am living according to the way I see the world; not the way I am told to see the world. When you compare yourself to others you take on their standards in the same way a religious person lives according to the standards of their religion. The fact of the matter is for a lot of humans to be happy they have to live according to their own standards. Yes, there are a lot of societal zombies who can live according to the standards of others without a shred of unhappiness. Most people feel some kind of general unhappiness about it.
Nothing good comes out of the pursuit and relishing of other people’s failures. All that comes of it is wasteful. Instead, use your time to do productive things like read my other posts or, even better, challenge yourself.
Daedalus' Workshop 