^In life, sometimes someone will try to make you look bad to
make someone else look better. You see this in politics
"mudslinging", middle school and among salespeople and
secretaries in business environments, in churches, even among
competing scientists in scientific journals, desperate
housewives and in villages around the world.
But here's the thing: It only serves to convince the already
convinced.
It gives the false appearance of effectiveness, but when the
numbers are compared scientifically, they're literally
"preaching to the choir"; the same people think the same as they
thought before - they just get a few more piles of mud to throw
at the person they already didn't like.
Humans are silly creatures. But politics are in every field
where you have people. Whether you choose to play the game or
not, is up to the individual. Having been pushed into a forced
fist fight in middle once, I held my ground to protect myself
but when it was all over, all the people cheering "Kenny" and
all the people cheering "Adam" (my forced opponent), didn't
matter to me. I felt bad I had to make his nose bleed and he got
suspended for three days, and he felt bad for having to fight
me. The band of people who followed me for weeks afterwards were
like a bunch of idiots to me - congratulating me for a victory
in a war I never wanted to fight in the first place. Adam had
people declaring his victory to him. He didn't care about them
either.
Politics is a ridiculous human activity. Play it if you like,
but never forget, it's just a game.^
