Taexalia

wild.life

Mine is bigger than yours

Have you ever noticed that when you tell a story there is always someone in the room who wants to "trump" you? It doesn't matter what the topic might be, the chance of someone feeling the need to *seem bigger* is always there.

Phrases like:

"...you think that's bad wait til you hear what happened to me..."

"...that's nothing compared to my story..."

"...I can beat that story..."

I'm talking in the realms of personal stories, life events and whatnot and it bemuses me that people still feel the need to be in competition about things like that. It's bad enough that politicians and military fools spend time and our money having pissing contests over who has the biggest bomb and who has the most destructive technology, but when it bleeds down to our own stories I think it is really sad.

I have seen this happen in all sorts of conversations - I have even heard a woman tell another woman that her experience of rape was "much worse than yours". I mean how exactly does she know? How do you compare and measure such a thing?

I think it's akin to that horrible aspect of "humour" that I call scapegoat humour that some people thrive on... you know the guy in the pub who is so desperate for attention that he picks one person from the gathering and basically insults them all night... and when they speak up and ask him to stop they are accused of lacking a sense of humour. That brings out the pissing contest of "my sense of humour is more intact than yours"...

I never understand why people can't just own themselves instead of having to measure up against the person sitting next to them to feel relevant. Telling your own story doesn't have to include using another person's story as a bolster.