It’s a jungle out there!
Selma believes in the jungle theory of survival – those who harm others are eventually harmed by someone more harmful than themselves, and those who fly under the radar, respecting others, and doing no harm, are generally guaranteed a long and peaceful life.
“If it’s a jungle out there – and in many respects it is,” says Selma, “then whoever ‘eats’ you is eventually going to be ‘eaten’ by a bigger predator and this is exactly what I have found to be the case in respect of all of the people who have harmed me.”
“Being aware of other people’s rights and treating them as I wish to be treated myself is something most of us do intuitively, but there are some people who for reasons better know to themselves feel that they are entitled to trample over everyone and everything in their path and have no natural fear, it seems, of the repercussions of their greedy, pushy and cruel actions.”
“My intuition must be pretty good because I usually see these people coming and avoid them like the plague,” laughs Selma, “but every now and again a quiet cunning type escapes my radar and fools me.”
“I don’t hold grudges or bear malice when bad things happen to me because to do so would be the surest way to an early grave,” explains Selma. “You’ve just got to pick yourself up and get on with life as fast as possible, and I’ve always been able to do this relatively easily because I know intuitively that someone else will do to them what they did to me, or they will undo themselves in time because of their greedy, pushy or cruel actions, or sweet justice will deal them a blow that knocks them off their lofty perches.”
“I was about 18 when I first discovered ‘sweet justice’ or schadenfreude ,” says Selma. “It caught up with my former best friend who had betrayed me horribly. Her parents divorced and then her mother died, leaving her homeless and having to quit college in order to support herself.”
“I didn’t rejoice in her misery – I never do in these situations – I just accepted it as sweet justice.”
“And then there was my first boyfriend – who broke my heart – who ended up having his heart broken by someone else!”
“And then there was the awful woman manager I once had at work who treated me like a slave,” sighs Selma. “I actually did feel a sense of satisfaction when, a year after I quit that job, the company folded and she was out on the streets job hunting and never managed to work her way up the next ladder of opportunity because by that time she was too old (or her bad reputation dogged her). ”
“Let me see now,” muses Selma, “there was that accountant who handled my investments atrociously who also died prematurely; a nasty neighbor who had a heart attack; a lawyer who tried to con me into taking on a bottomless pit of a law suit who cooked his own books and ended up in prison; and a hands all over the place doctor who went too far with another woman patient and ended up in prison, too.”
“There are probably plenty more sweet justices that have befallen the nasty people I’ve come across, but I only hear about the ones that make the news or come to me via someone who knows someone who knows the perpetrator.”
“The most poignant one, though, was the demise of my mad ex-mother-in-law.”
Read more by Selma on this issue:
Labels: intuition, jungle, predators, schadenfreude, shadenfreude, sweet justice, theory of survival
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