by Donald Sevilla
The Boy Who Cries Wolf
We are all familiar with the story of the boy who cried wolf a couple of times who ended up being taken for granted after creating false alarms and losing credibility for his actions.
But doing so many times over signifies a deliberate effort to abuse people’s trust and good nature. Cries for help in critical situations should never be used as a means to poke fun at others lest the real emergency lose its urgency and be outright dismissed.
The boy who cried wolf learned his lessons with disastrous consequences. Similarly, those who casually abuse our confidence end up losing their credibility and eventually fail to get the help they seek.
Thus, it is important that we should never abuse and belittle how others respond to a call for help. We should never dial 911 or call the fire department to test their responses in the absence of an actual emergency. Prank calls are frowned upon and are not the behavior of a normal person.
Yet some people enjoy pranking others this way to satisfy their idiosyncracies. So how should we call people who enjoy a laugh like this at others’ expense? Should we not see them as childish bullies who sadistically enjoy inflicting harm upon unsuspecting victims?
When one repeatedly engages in such behavior, should we give credence to his claims and believe his words? Of course not. The more a person engages in a recidivist behavior the more chances are he won’t be taken seriously.
Living in a society with others, there are norms and standards expected of us.There are things that normal people do and don’t do. When we deviate from these norms and behave in a manner unacceptable by almost everyone we are seen as “abnormal” and our actions taboo.
When this happens we are likened to the boy who cried wolf who intended to make a fool of others but ended up making a fool of himself. Yet some people just don’t understand and continue to act with impunity abusing our patience and understanding. They continue to be bullies and act with entitlement without regard for our feelings.
But what goes round comes around. With deliberate pun intended such actions could blow up in their faces and the last laugh can become ours.
” Crying wolf” simply to test our responses and making fun of it is unacceptable. Dishing out threats and challenges to ” project strength” is a weakling’s refuge. So let us be careful how we treat others and point accusing fingers at them for we could end up incriminating and humiliating ourselves.