The Ting Tings Had It Right

Everyone's a hypocrite--true or false? 

I've had the opportunity to think about this statement the past few days. The more I mull over it, the more I believe that everyone does things they say they hate in other people. Sometimes it's a harmless trait, but other times it can truly hurt.

 Think about it: what is it that you despise about a person? Rudeness, maybe? A tendency to beat around the bush? Untidiness? Do you hate it when someone is gossipy, perhaps, or noisy or secretive or snobbish? Now take a look at yourself--and make it a good, long look. Can you honestly say you've never fallen into the same category yourself?

If your answer is yes, then I don't believe you're being honest. I've known myself to raise arms against people who cut in front of me on the road, and yet I've also caught myself doing the exact same thing when I'm running late. I say I don't like gossip, but I listen with a fascinated ear when the office tsismis comes my way. If you're calling me a hypocrite right now, ask yourself if you've ever thought you don't like judgmental people.

So if we're all hypocrites, what can we do to stop ourselves from hurting others? Because we can all be harmless hypocrites. It's when we go out of our way to call someone out on something we don't like about them that things start to get nasty. Especially if we don't know that person; especially if them knowing what we think does nothing for them; and most especially if our unpleasant opinion applies to ourselves.

I've learned that the best thing to do when I have an opinion is to keep it to myself. I can rant and rage against anyone I want--that's my right. But saying it out loud and causing harm--and worse, needless harm--to that person when s/he is doing nothing to hurt me is overstepping my boundaries. And in the end, no one's happy. Not me, because I'd be a negative bitch. And not that person, because they'd have received hurtful criticism from someone who has zero right to give it. So, hayaan na sila. Let people do what they do and be who they are. As the song goes, "Shut up and let me go."

And personally (and as an end note), I hope I don't ever become that kind of hypocrite.