Well they have finally confirmed what I have kind of known for a long time. It does not pay to be a nice guy. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mean-guys-finish-first-least-paychecks-193159172.html Okay I have thought about it in terms of romance but it is probably true in financial matters as well.
My observations is that this study is correct. In a society in which we have interaction of nice people and pushy, aggressive people that the pushy aggressive ones tend to win out. Not every time of course. Sometimes their aggressiveness irritates those around them and they lose out. But it is naive to think that the rude often gets their way because people rather give in to them than have to deal with them.
Would it not be great if we could push those who are overly demanding and be more sensitive to the nice people around us? Perhaps those who are not nice would learn to be nice to get their way instead of being aggressive to obtain what they want. Would that not be a better society? Too bad that is not the way it is.
I consider myself a nice guy. At least I am when I am not blogging. When I read stuff like this it tempts me to be more of an irritant so that I can get what I may believe I deserve. Try to find ways to put pressure on the Dean and others in the college unless they pay me better. But that is not me. And I do not want it to be me.
I think that niceness has its own rewards. I like being a nice guy. Even if it means that I do not get the pay increase or nice job perks. Even if it means that I may be taken for granted some in my friendships and relationships. I rather like the person I am than become a rude person, gain from other people but not like myself. Somehow when they assess about whether nice people have a better life they may not be able to measure the satisfaction gained being good to other people regardless of whether you are "paid" for it.
Sincerely,
Trouble-Maker
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Bummer!!
Those of you not in Texas probably know that we have been undergoing quite a heat wave here. In fact we were on pace to set a new record. The old record was 42 straight days where the high temp was 100 or over. Until yesterday we had 40 straight days of such temps. But yesterday it was only 94 degrees. Bye bye record.
I am actually disappointed that we did not get the record. I figured that we had undergone so much heat already that why not get something for it. I was looking forward to getting a t-shirt " I survived the record heat of 2011." Guess I will have to just satisfy myself with another longhorn t-shirt now.
It was kind of surreal hoping for more heat yesterday. I was really wanting the record. Before you just think I am crazy consider this. I can curse this terrible heat wave we have undergone or I can just laugh at it. When given the choice of cursing or laughing I choose to laugh. I just do not want to start another streak of 40 plus days of heat over 100 degrees. At least not until next summer.
Sincerely,
Trouble-Maker
I am actually disappointed that we did not get the record. I figured that we had undergone so much heat already that why not get something for it. I was looking forward to getting a t-shirt " I survived the record heat of 2011." Guess I will have to just satisfy myself with another longhorn t-shirt now.
It was kind of surreal hoping for more heat yesterday. I was really wanting the record. Before you just think I am crazy consider this. I can curse this terrible heat wave we have undergone or I can just laugh at it. When given the choice of cursing or laughing I choose to laugh. I just do not want to start another streak of 40 plus days of heat over 100 degrees. At least not until next summer.
Sincerely,
Trouble-Maker
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Christian Terrorist?
Much has been made of the claim that Anders Behring Breivik is a Christian terrorist. A few months ago I blogged about Muslim terrorist and pointed out that a certain percentage of Muslims are dedicated to violence. The only thing we can do with them is kill or imprison them. That begs the question of whether there are Christians who are dedicated to violence. Those that we must either kill or imprison. It can be argued that Breivik is one such person.
As I often see it, such a statement is only partially true. It does not seem to me that Breivik is a good example of a Christian terrorist. The citations I have seen in his "writings" indicates that he is discussing a cultural Christianity and he sees Christianity more as an anti-Islam system than a intrinsic belief system. A better example would be Paul Ross Evans who was convicted of attempting to bomb an abortion clinic. He openly talks about having a Christian motivation for his actions.
Christian terrorists do exists. But they are very few and far between relative to Islamic terrorists. That is not a politically correct statement but it is a true one. Any reasonable, knowledgeable person would make that conclusion. But it is of interest how fast the media was to tie Breivik to Christian terrorism. They were not so fast to tie Major Nidal Hasan Islamic terrorism. The same New York Times that ran the "Christian Terrorist" headline for Breivik barely mentioned the Islamic faith of Hasan as his motivation in the body of their stories even though he shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he did his shooting.
Why this unequal treatment.?Here I must engage in speculation. I think that there is an eagerness to argue that there is an equal level of Christian terrorism as there is Islamic terrorism. Perhaps some individuals hostile to religion want to show that all religions are equally violent. Others may believe that Muslims are victims in a Christian society and so it is not fair to point out that there is more violence tied to contemporary Islamic terrorism than contemporary Christian terrorism. Either reason is a distortion to reality and hampers us as we try to deal with violence.
Finally, I know that it may be considered Islamophobic to point out that Islamic terrorism is more prevalent today than Christian terrorism. That is too bad since if we do not recognize this difference then we are hiding from reality. If I am walking by myself on a dark street and notice five men coming behind me I will be a little more scared than if I see five women walking behind me. That does not make me anti-male but just that I am aware that men are more likely to commit violence than women. Likewise let us be honest about the reality of religious terrorism today.
Sincerely,
Trouble-Maker
As I often see it, such a statement is only partially true. It does not seem to me that Breivik is a good example of a Christian terrorist. The citations I have seen in his "writings" indicates that he is discussing a cultural Christianity and he sees Christianity more as an anti-Islam system than a intrinsic belief system. A better example would be Paul Ross Evans who was convicted of attempting to bomb an abortion clinic. He openly talks about having a Christian motivation for his actions.
Christian terrorists do exists. But they are very few and far between relative to Islamic terrorists. That is not a politically correct statement but it is a true one. Any reasonable, knowledgeable person would make that conclusion. But it is of interest how fast the media was to tie Breivik to Christian terrorism. They were not so fast to tie Major Nidal Hasan Islamic terrorism. The same New York Times that ran the "Christian Terrorist" headline for Breivik barely mentioned the Islamic faith of Hasan as his motivation in the body of their stories even though he shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he did his shooting.
Why this unequal treatment.?Here I must engage in speculation. I think that there is an eagerness to argue that there is an equal level of Christian terrorism as there is Islamic terrorism. Perhaps some individuals hostile to religion want to show that all religions are equally violent. Others may believe that Muslims are victims in a Christian society and so it is not fair to point out that there is more violence tied to contemporary Islamic terrorism than contemporary Christian terrorism. Either reason is a distortion to reality and hampers us as we try to deal with violence.
Finally, I know that it may be considered Islamophobic to point out that Islamic terrorism is more prevalent today than Christian terrorism. That is too bad since if we do not recognize this difference then we are hiding from reality. If I am walking by myself on a dark street and notice five men coming behind me I will be a little more scared than if I see five women walking behind me. That does not make me anti-male but just that I am aware that men are more likely to commit violence than women. Likewise let us be honest about the reality of religious terrorism today.
Sincerely,
Trouble-Maker
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)