#258: We’re in this together

Last week I said that humans are strange. We dominate our planet because we can work together and yet we compete with each other like crazy.

Here’s another bit of crazy. We don’t mind so much if bad things happen to us as long as the bad things happen to all of us.

You don’t believe me? Look around. Considering all the bad things happening at the moment, how many really unhappy faces do you see? How unhappy are you, really?

But if you were the only one struggling financially, the only one without a job, how would you feel?

Unfortunately, the opposite also happens. When others are successful, and we are not, we become resentful. Like lobsters. A man asked a fisherman carrying a bucket of lobsters, “Won’t the lobsters climb out?” “No”, replied the fisherman, “When one gets near the top, the others pull him back down.”

Now you know why politicians tell us daily “we’re all in this together”.


I’m JamesMcIntosh@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2008 James Henry McIntosh

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