Show him a drunk man says the old proverb, I would be inclined to agree. The aforementioned expression has nothing to do with alcoholism and has everything to do with seeing or hearing your negative conduct displayed by someone else. Only then can one learn.
A perfect example being what I heard outside my office this morning. I was on youtube watching a documentary about suicide, there was chatter outside my office from what I guessed was a group of medical students early 20’s. I was trying to concentrate on the documentary in spite of the chatter. The main part of the group moved on and there was a guy and girl left. The guy seized the moment ” eh, do you eh, if you’re not too busy, do you want to go out sometime?”. I clicked pause on youtube, I had to hear what would happen next, fair play to the guy for trying but he was too nervous in my opinion. ” I can’t, I have a boyfriend” said the girl. ” I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” said the guy. ” Its okay” said the girl. ” No really, I’m so sorry, if I had known you had a boyfriend I wouldn’t have asked” said the guy. The man was digging himself into a deeper hole, he shouldn’t of gave a fuck and certainly not apologised. ” You’re making me feel really awkward now, I’m gonna go” said the girl. I unclicked pause and continued with the documentary.
2 comments
I can’t stand watching debates or podcasts where a person (usually novice) is being cringeworthy. If I can detect his feeling, I can just predict how he will go on and I just have to close the tab. Because I can detect myself in him.
Spot on. I can detect my behaviour if its of a negative slant in others. Personally I could never learn from my mistakes, it was only when I saw how I carried on in someone else did the message get through which is why I have the utmost respect for that proverb and the truth it contains.