The Sickening Act of Faultfinding

The Sickening Act of Faultfinding

How many of us can touch our hearts and say with honesty that we do not enjoy the discomfiture of someone else? How many can say, without pretense, that they don’t look for failures in others or in what they do? How many of you would fail a failsafe test for traces of sadism???

In all honesty, the answers to all the questions above would be, politely put –very few!

It is an unsolved mystery, why we humans, considered to be the pinnacle of evolution, still engage in the scarcely beneficial process of faultfinding, sadistic enjoyment of others discomfiture and enjoying the sight of someone else’s shamefacedness.

Sadism is a “dark” trait that involves the experience of pleasure from others’ pain, yet much is unknown about its course of evolution. Almost all other traits have clearly traceable roots to formation. The closest relative to fault finding and  sadism is jealousy. Starting with sibling rivalry and later on jealousy, the roots can clearly be attraction or failure to attract parental attention. Some psychologists also link faultfinding and sadism with mislaid aggressiveness.

Leaving the science behind, if one were to ask, what you benefited from finding fault with someone else, most people are unlikely to have a concrete answer. However one trait that is common among the fault seekers is, an inherent lack of self-confidence. Without thrashing about in realms of unheard words of psychology, common sense tells us that behind getting a kick out of other’s discomfiture is the fear of one’s own failure or inability.

So if this is nature, is there not getting beyond this? Well herein lies the hidden gain. If there is a fault you have seen in someone else, it is also a golden opportunity to, overtly if allowed or covertly if not, try to rectify it. This in the long run will also stand you in good stead regardless of whether the other person benefitted or not, or knew about your efforts or not. It take you one step closer to clearing your own faults, simply because we find faults in other, that we have in ourselves and are easily able to realize it for what it is.

The sadistic streak can be destructive to us in that, every time we rejoice in someone else’s pain, we are moving closer to it. That is nature’s way of evening things out. That is Divine reasoning