Never wrestle with a pig
Published: Thu, 10/05/17
A good bit of advice is. ‘Never wrestle a pig, the pig enjoys it and you will both get covered in mud (or worse)’. What prompts me to share this nugget of wisdom? Yes, the things people will say on Facebook about subjects they obviously know nothing about. I tried posting a link saying thanks for prompting me to write a couple of answers for my FAQs page and it predictably got a worse and more aggressive response than the first time. Apparently Stav is a total con and, from someone else, anyone can make up a family system. Actually totally predictable and I will take my own advice and go no further with that particular thread.
It is easy to upset when attacked with comments and criticisms that seem unfair and are clearly based on a combination of ignorance and misconceptions. The temptation is to get stuck in and try to defend yourself but it usually only makes things worse. When advising someone about how to handle unfounded criticism certain rather crude clichés turn out to be surprisingly useful. The is the pig example I started with and this one. ‘Opinions are like anuses, everyone has got one but that is as much as you want to know about it.’ Have the comments got under my skin? Yes, obviously but I am writing about the experience and any inspiration is something to be grateful for. We are only talking Facebook comments anyway.
Geoff Thompson tells a story of how, long after he had retired from door work, he got a phone call from an old acquaintance. Apparently someone who had fallen foul of Mr Thompson in his more violent days had been sounding off in the pub how he was going to take revenge even now. Geoff was initially quite concerned and started thinking about what action he should take to protect himself. Then he realised it was almost certainly just pub talk, wrote an article about the experience and sold it to a publication for (as I recall) four hundred pounds. As expected, nothing ever came of the threats either.
The most important thing to remember is that being challenged makes you think and tests your self control. So, people who attack you verbally and critically are doing you a service. If you will permit me one last cliché. ‘The wise man learns more from the fool’s question than the fool learns from the wise man’s answer.’
Which sort of brings me on to asking, if anyone has a question I could use on my FAQs page I would be very glad to hear it. And I am sure that if you are the kind of person who reads my posts we will benefit equally from the question and the answer.
regards
Graham
PS Talking of questions, Alan Cox asked me enough of them to keep me talking for a large part of a 2 hour broadcast. If anyone wants to listen to the podcast you can find it here http://alancox.podomatic.com/ you will need to scroll down a short way.