The Art of Getting Offended

Of all the skills needed to survive today (2020), the one of paramount importance is knowing how to get offended. You don't always have to lead a riot, though that can grab headlines in national media for a few hours to a few days. But you must do it right, and therefore, there is a market for Skill-building courses involving this skill. Entrepreneurship, e-commerce and food delivery are passe.

There is no need to impress upon you why this skill is important. If you don't get offended these days, you are a nobody. You may think you are something great like a Social Media Influencer with thousands of followers, but if you don't get offended regularly, you will lose all those followers. The only other way to get loyal followers is to get into scandals regularly. But getting offended is easier. Let me explain.

You can get offended by almost anything. That's a huge advantage. If the name of a new film is not to your liking, you can get offended. If the film shows your profession in a bad light (even if fictionally), you can still get offended. If the director does not apologise for the imaginary slights, you can get offended. Even if he does, you can get offended by his insincerity in apologising. You get the point?

If someone tells a joke involving gender, ethnicity, nationality, eating habits, accent, what-have-you, you can get offended. Humorists and cartoonists (the ones that are out of jail) will have a tough time because of you too- an added plus for getting offended.

If you are offended by this blog post, it would have served a purpose-of educating you as to the importance of the whole thing.

It's Not Just the Wines

We lay too much emphasis on what others tell us is good. It's not just the wines though.

The experts tell us what to do in many spheres of life. And we listen to them. Sometimes they are right. More often, they are wrong. Any person of average intelligence knows what's good for him. But this is clouded by what others (experts or not) keep signaling to us.

You can only do so much to please others. That also ends up not pleasing you. There has to be a balance. " Not listening" to someone- particularly elders- is considered a sin in our society, and the popular refrain of parents is "he/she doesn't listen to me". While the parental anguish is justified when the kid is a kid, this persists when the kid is a grown-up too. That's when he/she needs to discover himself, make a few mistakes of his own, and learn.

In adulthood too, we have know-alls who have a solution to every problem. These guys are dangerous. You need to think for yourself, and this skill can only develop through practice. Who was it that said, " I think, therefore I am?" He was right.