Screwing over those you protect, by protecting the people that screw you over.
This lesson gets played out time and time again in relationships and politics. It's almost as if many people have an abusive relationship with the world at large. Think about it, we have politicians that make promises to us every election. And to no end, without exception, their promises go unfulfilled, regardless of party affiliation or position of power.
Still every election people fervently coalesce to either side, filled with rapturous joy, knowing that they'll finally get what they've been promised. And without fail, 4 years later, or sometimes eight, their dreams are shattered against the bedrock of reality.
It is as if people are caught up in a giant honeymoon phase of the abuse cycle. You kicked my butt, I forgive you, you won't do it again? Great! Butt kicked again, cycle repeats. I want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. People can change. Usually they don't, but they can. Sometimes however, the evidence weighs too much in one direction. Idioms like "A leopard never loses their spots.", only succeed in telling a partial truth. Real life is more nuanced than idioms. They only serve to assuage the minds of the simple.
idiom (n.)
1580s, "form of speech peculiar to a people or place;" meaning "phrase or expression peculiar to a language" is from 1620s; from Middle French idiome (16c.) and directly from Late Latin idioma "a peculiarity in language," from Greek idioma "peculiarity, peculiar phraseology" (Fowler writes that "A manifestation of the peculiar" is "the closest possible translation of the Greek word"), from idioumai "to appropriate to oneself," from idios "personal, private," properly "particular to oneself."
As the etymology of the word points out, these expressions are personal. The problem with personal information happens with all anecdotal experiences. People's life experience gives them too narrow of a population sample to draw real conclusions.
Remember, the plural of anecdote is not data.
And while I can think of thousands of ways to screw over those we protect, by protecting those who screw me over, I choose not to act on them.
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