Thoughts

Friendship. Can't live with it. Can't live without it.

I still remember how I advocated the importance of friendship, just as much as how I stress on its importance to myself every single day, whether directly or otherwise. "Be the kind of friend you'd want to have" and all that sort of thing.

But in light on my recent opinions of Mankind's foibles and hypocrisy, I have been doing some thinking.

Let's assume a person decides to distance himself away from a select few individuals simply for his own greater good, would that actually imply hypocrisy? Even if he decides to distance himself from people who do not help him change positively, but are still jolly good people to have a simple conversation with, would this too be called hypocrisy?

So much of our actions in the past have inadvertantly caused a lot of misunderstandings in the present. In fact, things have become so muddled up that it's hard to determine what is real and what isn't. Like how the UN Security Council's majority were for the "no-fly zone" policy in Libyan airspace and those against the motion. Some quarters - especially the US - are calling it a necessary evil. Others condemn it with every passing day.

So what is really the right thing? Does it matter to perspective, be it a common or a divergent one? Does it have to be accepted by society's norms? Does it need approval?

So: friendship. Can't live with it, can't live without it.

There is no excuse as to breaking a friendship without a valid reason. I still recall a friend of mine (well, once was) removing me from her Friends' list on FB just for one little mistake. Can't blame anyone on this - hypocrisy, remember? But then again are we entitled to just cut off a friendship in such short notice? Or what then?

Everyone has the right to know their mistake(s), just like how criminals must know what they're being charged of before being taken to court. So shouldn't we embrace that methodology? Why not? Simple enough: one, our ego prevents us from saying things that make them AND us look bad; two, we're too pig-headed to say it out; three, it's the only thing that disallows people to bitch about others. And face it, Man thrives on gossip and small-talk. Every day you hear of it. And it never gets tiring - to the majority of the world.

So, caught between a rock and a hard place. Friendship has suddenly become a social hazard. Hypocrisy reigns supreme, the clear winner.

John Maxwell states that it's necessary to break off from people who are negatively impacting our life. The question is, how does one go about doing that without seeming hypocritical or offending to the other party? That's the challenge.