"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies." -Oscar Wilde.
Othello and Iago. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. the Autobots and the Decepticons. History and art are full of heroes and their enemies.
Tell us about the relationship between you and your arch-nemesis (either real or imagined).
Inspired by Martin Krzywy, admitted student Class of 2016.
When i was a kid, i often wondered at how a movie would be if the hero and the villain in it were friends instead of enemies. There would be nothing for both of them to do and in fact, no movie at all!
As i grew up with this question, and i began to realise and also read about the human drive for action, the necessity to go out there and prove things to people. If we lived in a world where there is nothing like enmity, then the need for standing out, proving stuff to people would be most unnecessary and thus would be the need for drastic actions that sometimes flip things about. Simply put, the human desire for supremacy over something or someone is what drives most people to act, Which means that there is a necessity for enemies in one's life if he is to do something big. Atleast most of all those who have done something big, have done so out of this drive for supremacy over someone or something.
In my case, although i have no such thing as an arch nemesis, there was one such person in my school who often i had to compete with and who in fact, as i realised later on, was the drive for most of my actions in which i stood out in the school. And more interestingly, we got along pretty well when we had to at times, and our so termed enmity came out in all its fierceness when we had to work or do something. This way, we had actually helped each other compete better and better by setting new standards to beat and new challenges for each other's egos. And then, as we had to part after high school, we realised that we had become an integral part of each other's life, as the saying goes, that enemies are actually a greater part of our lives than friends, it was true in our case. We still have this competitiveness in both our work and that actually keeps us going ahead of our usual competition and setting standards for our self.
This instance of enmity or so supposed, turned out to be a very constructive one but there were instances when we would actually take on a path of killing ourselves on the way to eliminate enemies. I don't think enemies are to be eliminated or that anyone would actually want to. They complement us in our lives. But there is a certain way of handling it - without jealousies or other negative things that actually damage us, there is a positive and more constructive way of dealing with it as has happened to me with my arch-nemesis.
Sugessions are appreciated.
