i AM bETter THan YoU

I’ve just finished reading another memoir of a Holocaust survivor. While their tenacity and courage inspire me, I often wonder how people can turn against people and torture them so ruthlessly. And it set me thinking.

When I was in school, my friends and I formed pacts and alliances following the likes of Famous Five and Three Investigators and Nancy Drew. These cliques were exclusive, membership being guaranteed only because one is judged to be a “good” friend, however we defined that. There was always someone who fell through the cracks, access denied. We taunted them by using our special code-words and secret language while in their presence. And isn’t this a form of “torture” as well? Inflicting pain on someone else for no apparent reason other than that we think them somehow inferior to us.

Have I always been such a supremacist? Have I always looked down on those who have less than me, who knows less than me? Have I always thought myself one rung higher than the girl next door?

Humility is not one of my greatest virtues. Pride is not one of my greatest faults.