“Del majadero y del patán, cualquiera es su padre”
“Del majadero y del patán, cualquiera es su padre”
I clearly remember when my Dad said this to me. He had just told a rather rude and obnoxious individual on one of the Metro trains in Mexico City to give up his seat for an elderly woman (who clearly did need the seat). My Dad (at the time, I was a mere 7 years old) used to tell us, his five boys, that there was a reason why we were being trained the way we were: to be agents of change. To be champions of the disadvantaged, if so required.
The phrase above can be translated loosely from Spanish as “anybody can (and should) be the rude person’s parent”. The meaning of the phrase (as I understood it from my father) is that, should it ever come down to it, you should take it upon yourself to teach manners to rude people, and protect the disenfranchised if they are ever being bullied or attacked in your presence.
I’m happy to put this into practice whenever necessary. Although I’m quite well aware of the potential negative side effects (e.g. that the bully in question may retaliate against me), I think it’s part of my duties. One of the beautiful things about being trained in martial arts is that, even if I get clobbered, my assailant won’t go home clean either.
I may not be perfect, but I was definitely very well raised by my parents.
Well said. A great anecdote in support of assertive parenting.
I sometimes think that ‘common sense’ and ‘doing the right thing’, phrases we hear all the time in our social interactions, are sometimes loaded with paradoxical advice.
In your situation, the training that allowed you to behave as you did in support of someone clearly disadvantaged could be countered by the ‘keep your nose out of other people’s business’ maxim. Clearly, your actions were morally justified. But I imagine people constantly have this dilemma of opposing rationales that inhibit action and reaction in the moment.