Do you realize that human beings innately love to compare? We are always comparing ourselves with other people and also we compare other things with other things.
When we shop, we will compare the prices, the qualities and the services of different shops. Then we compare different designs of an item. Once we've made up our mind on a specific design, we compare the different colors available.
When we dine out, we always compare what we order to the person sitting next to us or opposite us.
We compare our current bf/gf with all the ex(es) or even our current husband/wife with our ex-husband(s)/ex-wife(s). [Note: the more comparison you like to draw, the more likely you'll have a longer list of ex(es)] *muahaha*
"I have been putting so much effort in maintaining this and that *insert whatever human relatinoship or situation involved*. Look at what you've done. I contribute more than you." Does this line ring your bell? I'm pretty sure you and I have heard or even said this in some argument we've had with certain people somewhere along our daily lives. Again, this is another proof that we are comparing ourselves with someone else without noticing.
Kids note to their parents about their pals owning the newest toy from their parents.
Parents bragging about their own children while trying to compare favorably of them to their friends'.
Bosses compare their workers with their counterparts, and sometimes compare the newly recruited with the one who just quit and vice versa. And of course workers do the same to their bosses too.
For many professions, we have to apply the "comparison" tool to analyse certain cases and draw conclusions from there. The professional term for this is "comparative studies".
Insurance analysts have to analyse and compare all the different insurance policies.
Teachers have to compare the students' performance of the past year with this year's.
Fashion designers are comparing the trends of the past era with the current one for better inspirations.
Athletes are comparing records established and try to break them.
Scientists have to set up experiments to compare between different parameters of the experiment itself and then to the differences of the subjects.
Medical doctors acquire knowledge in treating patients by learning the differences between healthy organ and dysfunctional organ through comparison.
Not only we compare ourselves with others. We also compare the current overselves with the past ourselves. "I used to be a shy person, but now I've become more sociable." "I have put on weight now. When I was younger, I was a little underweight."
Comparing ourselves with others or even self-comparing is perfectly all right, as long as we don't go extreme. Unfortunately most of the time, many of us are just too obsessive about comparing with others and have viewed it like a competition. The more we compare, the more we feel like we want to be the best or at least achieve higher than the one we are comparing. No doubt, some healthy competitions induced by the comparison can motivate us for better self-improvement. But we shouldn't just let it get into our mind and thus imprisons us.
We have to realize that everything just appears to be relative. When we compare A with B, if B is taller, B is just taller than A, relatively speaking. It doesn't mean B is definitely the tallest in the world or in this universe. So what's the point in making ourselves thinking we are taller, thinner, prettier, smarter, richer or whatever with just an individual/a group of people/a nation? The universe is enormous and the populations are countless. Can we really be the only top of the top? Even if we can, does that mean anything?
Needless to say, we can't stop comparing. But at least we can tranform the comparing action into something positive. Sometimes I find that it is rather foolish to compare. Actually there's nothing for us to compare. Or I should say, it is impossible to compare in a truly fair and proper manner. This is because every individual and every item are separate entities. There are bound to be some dissimilarities between individuals and items. Identical twins are supposed to share identical genetic makeups. However they can have different personalities and other behaviors. Recenty I have even heard about one of the identical twins has an inheritance disease and yet the other of the pair is healthy. Even a product from the same manufacturing batch can have a mixture of qualities despite undergone strict quality control, period. Now, don't you think ridiculous we are in comparing ourselves or others with other entities? Worse still some of us actually are even emotionally arisen after comparing with others.
♥ every page of my imagination
