The need to want to win or to keep fighting

Perhaps there are some kinds of debates where people don’t want to find the right answer so much as they want to win the argument.

There seems to be a need to want to win. Or perhaps it’s a need to fight something or the other. If you login to facebook or any of the multiple social networks out there, you are asked to be outraged. That you are wrong and you should take a hard look at yourself.

Outraged at what you ask? Anything and everything!

You have got to be angry. The world is so wrong. You have to fight against something or the other. You are given a choice - you’re either with us or against us, made famous by George W Bush.

You can’t be nowhere in the middle. Where’s your sense of outrage? Why aren’t you fighting? CNN said something - aren’t you up in arms? Fox News said something nasty - don’t just nod your head, DO SOMETHING! Jon Stewart mocked someone else - Let’s all laugh at the loonies and get outraged at the insanity that is around us. And so it goes…

Perhaps that is right for most everyone.

I know it’s not right for me. I may not like everything that goes on around me, that doesn’t mean I have to fight everything, and get my metaphorical panties in a twist.

Being outraged has rarely ever helped me. If anything, it’s always made things worse.

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” - Leo Tolstoy

Before I want everyone to be tolerant, I have to be tolerant myself. Before I tell anyone to not fight, I have to not fight myself. If anything, I have to face my own contradictions. So, if anything needs to change, I will start with myself.

Now, pass me that sheesha, will ya?