An Exploration of Hypocrites

"You may know a person's face but not his heart" is a proverb that tells us to choose friends cautiously. Given that technology creates more convenient communication than before, it shrinks the time spent in connection and also breaks the limits of distance. Nowadays, even if there is a long distance between people, they can still communicate immediately. However, a problem also comes with highly developed communication. Human behaviors become more complicated, which confuses people on whether the speaker is sincere or hypocritical. People gradually get used to keeping some words without saying them, pretending to be another person, and masking themselves with a permanent "smile," eventually becoming hypocritical. To understand hypocrites, we should know how they got that way, why they continue to be that way, and why they are like liars.

A hypocrite is the product of social development. If there is only one person in the world, he would definitely not be a hypocrite because he doesn't need to care about any judgement. If there are two people in the word, the condition changes as they may interact as friends or enemies. However, both types require some communicative skills, like cooperating or negotiating. As a result, they must hide some information and may pretend to be friendly or have some advantages to make interactions go smoothly. Furthermore, if we extend the condition to the real world, which is comprised of numerous communities, people would be more likely to have more reasons to be hypocritical. Therefore, from the aforementioned, we can infer that hypocrites are people whose behaviors may contradict their personalities in order to socialize in the community.

The motives of hypocrites are based on benefits: what they can profit from and how to prevent a loss of those benefits. First of all, being a hypocrite can bring benefits because of their reputation. A good reputation makes celebrities more popular and gives them the ability to influence the public. In addition, media companies earn money by the number of listeners, readers, or viewers. As a result, talent agencies that create idols have developed since people have been using media more often. Nonetheless, do those stars behave genuinely? Actually their appearance and performance are designed to interest the audience, and advertising is the benefit they expect. Secondly, sometimes people present themselves hypocritically in order to maintain their benefits. One of my professors told me that humans, psychologically, also have a herd mentality that follows the direction of its community because it's more difficult to survive on one's own. Thus, even if people do not agree with a collective decision, they still pretend to comply with it. A well-known instance in Asia relies on Confucianism. If your superiors or colleagues invite you to a business lunch or dinner, you cannot refuse. Once you reject them, it also means that you are not one of them, and you will have less chance to be promoted.

A hypocrite is the personification of a lie. A good example is marriage. When people fall in love, they likely are hypocrites. From many divorce cases, most of them did not actually understand their lover's personality until one day when they feel something is different or they are not as loved as much as they were as the very beginning. Nevertheless, is it true? There is always no truth but a lie since everyone wants to be successful when they are going after someone. In fact, not only lovers but also they never change because they just disguise some of their true personalities and defects. Then, only after marriage or when they have been together longer, they will find the truth. Another example is politicians. Candidates always give the public a positive image when elections are coming. Also they usually tell lies about how their perfect policies can benefit people and improve the country. However, after they are elected, most of them are busy with accumulating their wealth and preparing for the next "harvest." So they still need to wear the good politician mask and tell more lies. The more beautiful lies they tell, the more votes they earn.

Almost all people are hypocrites. If you ask people whether they are hypocritical, the answer must be no because they are hiding their mendacious face. Today, perhaps to socialize or to benefit ourselves, we have many reasons to become hypocritical. People only show their good, their strength, and their false advantages to attract others. Therefore, we should open our eyes to scrutinize every relationship and never forget that "appearances always deceive."

Not Vegetables or Meat

As a personality, cheapskates still exist in our life. When I was young, I liked to read books, so I learned what a cheapskate was. A cheapskate is a kind of selfish person who just cares about his benefit. Its meaning can be found through two famous stories and my experience.

"The Merchant of Venice" by Shakespeare tells us a story about Antonio and Shylock. Antonio borrowed money from Shylock in order to help his friends, but Shylock got angry with him. At the end, Shylock wanted Antonio to cut his meat instead of paying more money. Shylock was a cheapskate because he was unfeeling as any wild beast. He didn't have any sympathy.

In Eugenie Grandet, author Balzac created a cheapskate who only cared about money. He didn't buy meat or vegetables all year round. He treated his only daughter as a trap to collect more money. Even Grandet watched and stroked his gold coins at midnight. Grandet was a slave to money; he lost his emotions. Try to imagine a mad person who was miserable even though Grandet himself could not.

A selfish person would never care about other people's feelings. My neighbor is very rich, but actually he drives a very old car. Although he owns a big company, he is demanding of his workers. His workers live in an ugly house, and they have few benefits. What's more, he is mean to his family. I never see his wife dress in beautiful clothes. His daughter always walks to school. What only concerns him is money. He aims at money, and everything else is less important.

From my point of view, all cheapskates have a very poor quality of life. They have lots of money, but they don't enjoy their lives. Basking in family life is relaxing, but cheapskates lack the kind of happiness. In the end, they will lose everything but their money.

Optimists

Is there anyone in the world who can be happy all the time? Optimists are the kind of people who treat danger like candy, who can comfort themselves easily when they get trapped into great sadness, and who can get over all their mental challenges. All kinds of difficulties will be a piece of cake when they meet an optimist. There are many kinds of optimists living in the world. No matter if it is fact or fiction, past or present, they decorate the world.

There is a famous Greek story about an optimist. Two frogs were caught by a snake, and they were already in its stomach. One frog was frightened to death. The other was an optimist, and he said to the coward, "Don't worry, buddy. It's a good place to live. It's warm and we have food." The coward was confused, "What are you saying? Where is the food?" "We are the food," said the optimist. The story contains irony, but there is no doubt that an optimist could treat danger like candy.

A friend of mine had a beautiful girlfriend after a lot of hard work to win her love. Unfortunately the relationship only lasted for one day. Most people would cry a river after losing such a wonderful dream, but my friend is an optimist. He said he had had an unforgettable experience in his life, and it was better than not having one at all. That's how an optimist thinks. That's how they get out of the traps of sadness.

Einstein is absolutely an optimist. A terrible fire damaged his lab where a magnitude of experiments. When others expressed their shocking exclamations about the loss of such great findings, Einstein gave them a simple smile. He admired the big fire that erased all of his mistakes and gave him a chance to make more progress. That's the great attitude of an optimist. Einstein got over his big challenge with a simple smile.

Optimists are happy all the time. They are normal people with some differences. They have wild minds. Their attitude teaches us how to treat difficulties and inspires us to improve ourselves. We may try to find optimists around us and try to feel what they think when they encounter difficulties. It is a good way to live happily.