If you followed the London Summer Olympic Games or watched any news afterwards, then you are probably aware of the strange obsession the media in general and petty people in particular have with “celebrities” appearances.

In general, this might not be a major issue or anything new, however, when people via Twitter, Facebook and even during televised interviews, begin to question the hairstyle and appearance of a 16 year old girl who is representing her country in the highest level of athletic competition, then this definitely reveals a more sinister element at work.

Not long after Gabby Douglas won gold in the ‘Women’s Individual All Around Final’, there was a tremendous response through various social media networks, in particular Twitter. Comments ranged from support & admiration on one side to mean-loathing-hateful and petty on the other. The trending comments of the petty nature mostly revolved around people harshly critiquing the appearance of Gabby’s hair, and why her hair was not “done” or styled properly. Some of the worst comments began to verbally attack her mother and family for letting her appear on TV “looking like that”.

To the credit of every decent and self respecting person, for every negative comment there were thousands of comments supporting and encouraging Gabby to ignore the negative people.

Several things were revealed through this incident. One is the power of social media and the internet to increase the collective ability for petty people to bully others. This is balanced by good people using the same sites and service to elevate people and humanity through mutual support and universal love and compassion. Perhaps, the most serious is the complete disconnect some people are developing with reality. The people writing the condescending comments had no concern of the impact their comments would have on a child’s self esteem and emotional well-being.

What we will never know is what affects the negative comments had on Gabby’s performance in the individual events of the uneven bars and balance beam. What we do know, is that the people leaving the negative comments would not care anyway.

In a classic text of Taoism, Chuang Tzu, there is a wonderful section that reminds us that not only are petty people nothing new, but that it is the petty person who is hurting and suffering the most!

“The sage regards what is thought to be necessary as unnecessary, and therefore he is not at war with himself. The multitude of men think that what is unnecessary is necessary, and therefore they are at war with themselves. Those who rely on this strategy of war resort to it in all their activities. But reliance on such a war leads to destruction.

The understanding of the small man [emphasis added] does not go beyond the details of giving presents and writing memoranda. He wears out his spirit in what is inconsequential and meaningless but wishes to participate in guiding others to the dao and bring about the unity of all things. But he falls into error regarding space and time. Restricted by his bodily form of finite existence, he is kept from the knowledge of the great beginning. In contrast, the perfect man focuses his spirit on what was before the beginning and finds repose in the unknown, in the realm of nothingness. Like water, he flows on without the constraint of matter and flourishes in great purity.

It is a pity! People are engrossed in things as insignificant as a hair [emphasis added] and do not comprehend the great rest! (Zhuangzi, Hyun Hochsmann and Yang Guorong, p.303)”

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