A good example can be annoying

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."
- Mark Twain

Some people can't cope with it. Either success of some sort of a clean version of good example drives them crazy.

It's human nature. I'm not aware of anyone ever having said that human nature was a good example of anything positive.

It is, however, by some means about which there is no common agreement, one of the components of our makeup which has allowed humans to flourish on every part of our planet.

Some people don't want others to succeed or to be happy or to give the impression that they are achieving important goals in their lives.

They can't raise themselves above the positions they have worked themselves into. So they try to hack away at others to bring them down to their level.

A good example reminds them of their mortality, of their failures, of their weaknesses.

Sadly, very little can be done to help them up. They believe (or force themselves to believe) that they are at the peek of success themselves. But deep down they know they are not.

We can help those who want to improve. We can do nothing for those who believe that they have nothing to improve upon.

Do they like what they see when they look into a mirror? Do they even see anything? Perhaps they see what they want to see and that is all that matters to them.

Pity. We will have to grow without them.

No one builds statues to remember critics after they die. No one creates memorials. They are quickly forgotten while those who are good examples live on in memory and story for generations.

Bill Allin
Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems, striving to help those who want to improve.
Learn more at http://billallin.com