Gossips, Whisperers And Liars

I only go out

to get me a fresh 

appetite for being

alone: 
Lord Byron 

That seems to be particularly true for our immediate community. While there are some people that are normal and nice there is a disproportional amount of those who are hateful, vengeful and angry. I had an incident the other day that gave me a fresh appetite for staying by ourselves. As I was driving down to the front gate to bring in some volunteers to cut firewood on our property there was a total stranger that made obscene gestures and had hate and anger all over his distorted face and for no reason whatsoever. We have people in the community that make it their life goal and find every opportunity to tell others gossip, lies, rumors and other falsehoods about you. Hence you encounter people you don't know who already hate you because of what they were told. I once introduced myself to a stranger and stuck out my hand to shake hands and when I mentioned my name he pulled his hand back and walked off.  Such people so easily influenced by others are unworthy of friendship anyway but it is sad when it happens and it happens in our community way too often. It happens in other areas I'm sure but in our community it has become a way of life and been refined to perfection. I personally don't let them bother me but I also don't associate with those who are ardent practitioners of gossip, lies, and/or whispering either. Therefore, they have to invent things and make things up about you which are ridiculous.

This is as old a tactic for weak people to build themselves up at others expense and goes back far into recorded history. Euripides (480-406 BC) said: "Never judge till you've heard the other side". Don't you think you should hear the other side? It just might be possible that you heard the wrong report! If you listened to only one version, you may not have heard the whole story, the whole truth. If you consider all the facts, you might be tempted to take the other side. The trouble is, it requires less effort to be hasty than correct; and it is easier to take sides, right or wrong where sympathies lie. But one truth is crystal clear: judgments should never be formed on either half facts or personal preferences. It is an old problem that now seems to get validity from a bias media and the internet. 

I see this in interpersonal relationships and especially now in politics with an election pending. People spew forth speculation as fact. If we took just a moment to research the item and get the other side you might be inclined to see the issue differently. Unfortunately the media and internet usually want you to see something a certain way and hence you get distortion and and when you happen to be inundated with untruths you falsely believe there is some validity to them. It goes back to what I heard many years ago: "if you can't convince them, confuse them". 

Perhaps that is why there is so much hate and rancor in the world today. People are being used, manipulated and misguided by media, internet and others who present falsehood as fact. Perhaps we individually should step back, verify our facts and not be part of the feeding frenzy with gossippers, whisperers and liars. Considering the world around us as it presently exists that would be a nice fresh start.