Have you ever wondered about the number of compromises you make every single day of your life? Be it the trivial little things like putting up with the baby in the neighbourhood who’s always crying, or more substantial things like knowing your local political goon gets away with a lot of stuff that “ordinary” citizens like you and I could never get away with, and keeping quiet about it.
Have you even actually paid attention every time you make a compromise? Or is it so routine that you don’t even notice whether or not you’re getting all you want out of life?
I wonder about compromises a lot. All the time in fact. It bothers me; and the phrase “Life is a compromise”, accepted by all as an axiom of life, troubles me the most. It doesn’t seem right. Should life really be a compromise?
Consider all the times you compromise. You compromise for family, for friends, for lovers, for colleagues, for bosses, for rulers, for teachers, for those with political power, for those with obscene monetary power, for those who can push you around, and sometimes for those so weak that empathy comes their way rather easily.
You compromise at home, in the neighbourhood, at work, over the internet, while you watch TV, in traffic, at the movies, in different social setups, in classrooms, in boardrooms, even while in the shower!
You compromise to avoid conflict and keep peace.
You compromise in order to stay out of trouble, because it would be less cumbersome to actually raise an issue and then deal with the follow-through of your actions.
You compromise because you are tired of trying to talk sense with people who simply don’t get it.
You compromise because you think, “let me me the better person here”.
You compromise because it’s the socially accepted thing to do. And God knows, you don’t want to be the rebel.
You compromise all the time because that’s what you’ve been taught to do.
WE compromise all the time, because that’s how we’ve all been brought up.
-That in order to live life, you must compromise.
-That for the sake of not just your safety, but for the safety of everybody you care about, your best approach to life is Compromise.
-And that if you don’t compromise, you’re being abnormal, difficult, selfish, eccentric, unnatural, and are out of line.
But then, what if you really don’t want to compromise?
What if you’re tired of doing it all the time, in every single situation you’re in?
Is it wrong to want this?
Does it make me abnormal, eccentric, selfish, and out of line to want this?
And more important, is it possible at all, that anyone wanting to just experience a blissful life of minimal compromise, will get their way?
POVeverything 