An Historical Downpour is a feature of A Rain of Frogs. It isn’t common, but once in a while I feature something I wrote on a different blog under a penname. Enjoy.
Originally posted as “Crashing the party” at 11:44AM on July 8, 2004.
I never understood why anyone would want to crash a party they weren’t invited to. First of all, if you’re not invited, there’s probably a good reason for it. Maybe its because you’re not liked. Maybe its because you don’t know any of the people at the party. Maybe it’s because you’ve made lots of mistakes in the past and people don’t want you be associated with you.
It’s natural to want to blame the people at the party, or even those running it. They’re elitist. They’re vengeful. They’re cliquey, and they’re mean for not including you in their activities. But that’s the wrong response. If you’ve got a bad reputation, how is crashing someone’s party going to improve it? That’s just going to drag your reputation further into the mud. Perhaps trying to atone for your behaviour is a more appropriate course of action.
Of course, atonement is hard. Lots of people don’t have the stomach to own up for their actions. Its perhaps the most serious widespread personality disorder in today’s society, the inability to account for ones actions. You see it in politicians who lie to keep out of trouble, you see it from businesses who, due to poor operating principles, end up raising the price of their products to compensate financially for their bad management skills. You see it everywhere. And what makes it worse is that there’s no reason anyone has to have any respect for your desire to change. Its not their problem. It’s yours.
Think about it.