Have you ever felt irritated by the weakness of other people around you? We don’t want to admit it, and we’d rather see ourselves having sympathy for the weak, but the truth is there are times when we do feel an uncomfortable dislike for people we see as weak. Why?
There are two things I’ve realized:
1. We hate seeing weak people because we don’t want to be reminded of our own weaknesses. We’d rather be in the company of strong and beautiful people as though by seeing them, we become strong and beautiful ourselves, we forget the scar of our hurts, our insecurities, the blemishes we don’t want other people to see.
2. We hate to see the weakness in other people because we feel that we’d be obligated to help them, and helping them is such a hard thing because we see nobody helping us anyway. We feel alone, even as weak as they are, and yet not being able to rely upon anybody else. Why should they in turn rely on us?
The weaknesses of others remind us and challenge us to overcome our own weaknesses. They are but mirrors we often don’t want to look for fear of seeing what we don’t want to see. Their weaknesses also remind us of our need for someone else, someone stronger than us, someone who can carry us when we can carry on no more. People have failed us many times, and that is why we often feel alone. Yet let us remember that there is a God who sees us just as we are and loves us just the same. There is a God whom we can count on to even if the whole world hates us for all our weaknesses.
Check Jocelyn's books:
"Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief", "Mend My Broken Heart", "Questions to God", "To Love an Invisible God", "Defending My Catholic Faith", and more - click here.
(You may freely quote excerpts from this website as long as due credit is given to author Jocelyn Soriano and the website itakeoffthemask.com)
4 replies on “Why Do We Hate Weak People?”
I hate to see the weakness from other people because I feel they don’t have enough energy to live.It makes me feel more persimistic in future.
I hate to admit but yes I don’t want them weak and as I reflected to myself also. I am happy sharing my life to other people, as they share their life story too. By exchanging of thoughts and experiences, then we are helping one another by telling what are the Do’s and Don’ts.
@Michaela – We can really help each other out as friends along this journey of life.
You hit the nail on the head!
I have felt repelled by this one person, so I decided to do a search online. And reality is, when I see them, I see me. Someone who is weak, vulnerable, fearful of rejection and overly nice fearing someone will get mad or angry.
Lord willing, this insight will help me be kinder to this person. Because, to date, I’ve only tried to be cordial.
It is difficult because if someone is as weak as me, I think we are both so in tune to each other’s emotions and body language, that we’re not ourselves. We’re too afraid of hurting each other. Or one person can feel a bit stronger and begin feeling like a hero/rescuer, which is not healthy either.