ARE YOU PERFECT? NO ONE IS ABOVE MISTAKE!

One Question please, ARE YOU PERFECT? Everyone is talking about Steve Harvey's international mistake, like we are all perfect. Well, my husband sent me a link with an interested story we can all learn from. So am sharing here courtesy of Iaspireblog

When it comes to our own mistakes, we are blameless Lawyers…in fact SAN (Shameless Advocates of Nonentities) but when it comes to the mistakes of others, we become the best judge since slice bread! A case in point is what happened to Steve Harvey on Sunday Night as the host of the Miss Universe contest where he erroneously pronounced Miss Colombia Winner instead of Miss Philippines!

From that instant, he has been trending on all social media platforms with all kinds of vicious jokes and sarcastic memes vilifying his person and reviling his character.

No one for a moment has stopped to find out the possible cause of that costly error. People are just too carried away and exhilarated with his blunder like they were eagerly anticipating it. As a matter of fact, this singular blunder has actually made the Contest more famous than it would normally be. I, for one didn’t even know there was a Miss Universe contest on Sunday until the whole brouhaha started trending!

If Steve Harvey rounded off his anchor duties without any mishap, trust me he won’t be trending right now for doing a good job. He is only in the news now because of a certain impropriety, which in all honesty cannot be blamed entirely on him!

So I wonder; why are we usually more excited about other people’s downfall or predicament? Why do bad news spread faster than good news? Why do we not celebrate positive achievements the way we are quick to highlight and announce negative ones? When people do well, why do we pretend not to see or notice and therefore refuse to commend them but when they falter we are quick to pick it up and run with it? Why are trending issues usually the negative ones? Why can’t people mostly trend for the right reasons? What are our individual roles in celebrating negativity? Is it possible that we can all see things objectively?

Like I said early, we cannot entirely blame Steve Harvey for the blunder. If you have taken a look at the card he was to read from, you would understand what I am talking about. The graphic layout of that card in my opinion was greatly responsible for the entire mess. If that card were done more appropriately as illustrated in the comparison below, that error would not have occurred.

But hey…no one cares about that right now. People are just too busy waxing his seeming error and displaying it on the foremost receptacle without due attention to the cause. No one is even commending him for his bravery in taking responsibility for his actions and such height of humility in owning up immediately and apologizing to the contestants and to the whole world on National TV and on Social Media! No! It’s all about his mistakes…his misfortunes!

To feel envy is human, but to enjoy other people’s misfortune is diabolical! Pleasure-in-others’-misfortune is the worst trait in human nature since it is closely related to cruelty. A central feature of pleasure-in-others’-misfortune is the belief that the other person deserves her misfortune. For example, when stuck in a traffic jam and another driver pisses you off when he overtakes you with some dangerous moves, your anger is replaced by pleasure if he gets pulled over by a traffic police for an offense or he gets hit by another vehicle. You feel some relief and believe the person deserves his misfortune…expressing your assumption that justice has been done! Should that really be the case?

Do you rub your hands in glee if someone you know fails to achieve his set goal? Or do you chuckle rather than empathize when someone slips and makes that embarrassing great fall in public? When a friend gets an award of honor or recognition, do you show a lot of interest and are you quick to spread the word around the way you would if the person got disgraced publicly? We all know which one “friends” would be more interested in! If someone got promoted, will you tell every ear that cares to listen the same way you would spread the tale if the person were sacked??? I guess we equally know which of this news would travel faster! Why should anyone get a kick out of whether small blunders or grave misfortunes of others? If you feel an evil sort of glee at the slip-ups of another, then you really need to check yourself.

While many may not set out to be sadist – that is directly inflicting harm or pain on anyone, however the moment we feel elated over the misfortune of others we are equally practicing sadism! This is not an emotion we should cultivate at the expense of cultivating our powers of empathy, because it can engender a longer-lasting and more fulfilling happiness.

Let us learn to celebrate the success of others; in big things and in small. Also, don’t forget to watch out for those who don’t celebrate you and your success. Most likely, they are waiting for your misfortune!

Stay Winning!