Hello Amazing!
Two weeks ago I wrote about ‘being dangerous’—a topic that is still swirling around my head. One reader pointed out that it might actually not be about intent, but also if someone perceives your interest to be aligned or unaligned to their own. For example, if you have good intent, for example when creating change in the world, but your interests go against someone else’s (the people who want to preserve what is) then they will still view you as dangerous. Thanks for pushing my thinking.
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For today I’ve been further exploring what dangerous actually looks like under different circumstances. For example, in a lawful society most physical violence and threats of violence are forbidden, and it’s hard to get away with, at least in the long run. For most of us it’s an effective deterrence. But lawful society doesn’t cover all aspects. What about the small slights? Someone taking credit for your work or trying to plant harmful rumors about you in the workplace? The little things that are hard to catch, and that someone might be able to get away with?
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I struggle to write about this because it goes against my desire to believe deeply in the goodness and generosity of every person. Is this belief deeply naive? If you have built a strong and trusted network through generosity, and these people watch your back, I wonder if that is actually as good a deterrence as one can get. Or maybe I’m just suffering from pronoia—the delusion that other people are plotting my wellbeing being my back.
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Please, share your thoughts on the above with me. It might take me a moment to get back to you, but I will.
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With much love
— Mathias