What's Useful In Comparison?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 16:05

It is often said now that comparing oneself to others is useless. This leads now to fledging, now to devastation. Social networks clearly show us where we are and how we live in comparison with other people. They show a beautiful picture, that side of being, which is filtered out in every sense of the word. People are satisfied with life, happy in their families, at their favorite jobs. Nobody shows the periods, how all this is achieved or all life processes. As a result, we see the ideal picture and start comparing it with it.

In comparison, as in all psychological processes, there are pros and cons.

We compare because we are used to doing it, that is, we have developed a habit of comparison. The habit of comparing oneself to another person is triggered by thoughts or circumstances and requires fulfillment. From the same habitual act of comparison, very different emotions are extracted: envy, vanity, gloating, pride, self-affirmation. If we refused to compare, then these emotions would be killed in the bud. But then we would not only destroy the harm, but also lose all the benefit, obtained from comparison.

This does not happen for the following reasons:

• first, comparison is more often pleasant than unpleasant because it can be a source of emotional reinforcement with a sense of superiority; we are not always proud to see the seeds of the poisonous fruit of envy. An action such as comparison is self-reinforcing, for in itself it can cause pleasure;

• secondly, the comparison is customary, and it is carried out automatically; we have been compared and evaluated since childhood; the act of comparison is necessary in many situations when we make decisions and choose the best;

thirdly, we do not understand and do not reflect on the consequences of the act of comparison. We do not foresee the consequences of comparison, since envy or pride arises after the act of comparison, and not before it

fourthly, society encourages us to compare, because it itself, through its representatives, constantly compares us in the family, at school, at work, so the comparison becomes habitual.

A person finds it difficult, and sometimes cannot refrain from comparing at all for many reasons. Comparison is the main mental operation through which thinking works and cognition is carried out. All properties of objects of nature are comprehended by comparison. On the results of comparison, other mental actions arise: abstraction, generalization, classification, construction of series, evaluation, etc. If I completely abandoned comparison, I would have lost the ability to think.

The comparison is familiar, as it is the driving force of the culture in which each of us is woven with countless threads. From the moment when a person began to exchange the products of his labor already in natural exchange, he had to compare the amount of his labor embodied in objects of exchange, and not only be interested in his needs, which are satisfied by the acquired thing.

Modern culture draws its energy from the energetic reactions of people to comparison, which takes on a global character; even love, beauty, truth are compared.

As you can see, comparing yourself to others can be helpful. However, also compare yourself to yourself. You - a year ago, two years, five to ten years. Compare objectivity and understand that the life that you see others has a downside.

Based on materials from the book by Yu. M. Orlov.