Centipedes

I once was walking with one of my “friends” who – out of the blue – stomped on a common house centipede that was just crawling across the sidewalk towards some bushes. The dialogue went something like this:

Dude, what is wrong with you.

What?

Why’d you do that?

Fuck off, like you give a shit.

Think about what you just did.

Needless to say, I don’t talk to them anymore. I think this quote is very relevant:

The measure of a man is what he does with power. - Plato

We all have power. Many people don’t realize how much power they truly have. If you – as a person – decided tomorrow that you no longer wished to follow society’s rules, you could do that. There is nothing that can directly prevent you from committing terrible, grievous crimes that would surely send you to hell. You have that power.

Yet – like many others – you probably don’t choose to rob, destroy, and murder. For many, I’m sure it’s because doing those terrible things would result in consequences (in the form of the law), but for many others I suspect it’s because the true measure of their character is positive.

Which one are you?

If I told you that you could kill the person you dislike the most with impunity – without any consequence – would you do it?

Is the law the only thing that’s holding you back from literally stomping on others? Do you prefer to step on people from the luxury of orderly, socially-engineered, air-conditioned environments? Do you turn the abstractions that we’ve built to enable advanced society to your own corrupt ends?

There is nobody you need to tell your answer to but yourself.

I only ask that you think.

Think about your answer and the type of power that you hold over others every day.

Think about the actions you take; ensure that they follow closely the self-image that you desire for yourself.

Have you stomped on centipedes before?

If you have, are you going to do it again?

Are you someone who is proud of stomping on centipedes?