If you really had to choose, what would be worse, to be liked but not respected or to be respected but not liked?
Most people claim that they want to be both liked and respected of course. I wonder what the turning point from being liked and respected to being neither could be for those who take that path. What motivates the choices some make that turns them into bastards? Money? Fame? A false sense of respect? A false sense of justification for the actions that they take? I guess it all wages against our conscience and our self respect.
I have been offered the possibility of becoming a bastard on two occasions. I didn't take any one of them. The first one was not a hard choice at all to turn down. I was offered to become the “front figure” of a Japanese French Maid Resturant when I was in Tokyo. At first I thought it was a joke, I mean for one I’m not exactly model material and the very idea of seeing myself dressed in a French Maid costume at all, never the less on large billboards all over Tokyo felt a bit bizarre and very repulsive.
“You blond, big blue eyes. You make millions of dollars here.” He explained to me.
“Well, that sounds very nice but I’m afraid my self respect is not for sale,” I explained having a hard time sticking with the politeness one must adapt to in Japan.
The other situation was very different and very complex which was why it was a much harder choice to make. What I learned from that experience and what made me understand that I made the right choice is that when you realize that you feel a need to justify your actions in terms of how it will affect other people, there is something that is very wrong. And that is your cue.
Hell no, I’m not that desperate... yet. :)
