For no apparent reason, Business Day Live have published a hateful letter directed at Australian Cricketer David Warner, under the HILARIOUS title 'Warner falls short'.
You can read the letter at the above link but the essence of it is that Warner is a shorter man, so that explains why he is allegedly aggressive and argumentative. As shown in this quote.
Warner stands a mere 170cm tall — the same height as Napoleon Bonaparte. It seems likely that Mr Warner suffers from the same short-man syndrome as did many of history’s aggressive and dangerous characters.So lets address what's wrong with this one point at time.
Point One
For the last time world, Napoleon was average height for his time.
Also lets take a look at some of history's other aggressive and dangerous characters.
Osama bin Laden - 6 foot 4
Saddam Hussein - 6 foot 2
In fact if you look into the subject you will find that there are lots of aggressive and dangerous characters across the spectrum of height.
It's almost as though there is no correlation between height and personality. Shocking I know!
Point 2
Comparing a sportsman, however much you might dislike him, to a dictator is pretty disgusting. To my knowledge, David Warner has not instigated any wars or attempted to cease political power for himself. To compare him to a man who caused huge suffering and upheaval in people's lives is deeply unfunny.
Point 3
I don't follow cricket and I don't know David Warner. Perhaps he does say lots of things
in a highly aggressive manner designed to bring on controversy.and perhaps he does deserve some criticism for that. I have no idea, but I do know that attributing this to his height in this cruel and mocking way is just wrong. Perhaps his personality is down to the fact he is a sportsman who are known for their competitive nature and well developed egos? Perhaps he was just born that way? Who knows.
Pulling out the oh-so-tired short man syndrome joke is wrong and ever so ever so dull.
It's just 1/ ignorance 2/ indoctrination. If the majority of people in the world think this way then they have not had life experiences and/or have the mind to look at the evidence. The same with any subject, such as 'races' of people. One is taught to be racist. Either directly, or by the environment. Let's say a person is 6'2", he is considered 'tall' in the west. Then he goes to a country where the average height is 6'6". Does he consider himself somehow 'inferior' because of his self-view? He will, if he's been taught that. But if not, wherever he goes in the world, he's more than OK.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was age 5 (wasn't even in kindergarten) two bigger kids for no reason started to hit my friend who was even smaller than me. They stopped when my friend got a wood sliver in his hand (he was gripping the side of the open trailer we were playing in); so one of the bullies said, OK, it's his turn. I didn't know what was going on, but somehow each of my fists pummeled both their faces, and they ran away across the street crying, and pointing me out to a woman (one of their moms, I guess). I'll never forget the looks on all three faces. What, that one boy beat you both up? I hope those guys grew up thinking twice. So I grew up not feeling in any way inferior, and because this was my self image, this was 'projected' to others, so that people react to me positively.... example, whether taller or shorter, girls are attracted to me; and of course, I look at people 'what's inside'. And I also grew up with attitude to protect weaker people (weaker in their eyes), males or females, and so I studied combat arts, etc. -- enough that a former triad bodyguard, martial arts expert/special ops wanted to bring me in (I said no) btw, I knew he was real because we were introduced by another special ops guy I knew was real. And what I've learned is that in real life (not movies nor sport fighting), size is definitely secondary to the heart and skill level of the individual. Generally, I'd say the 'smaller' guy has the advantage in the real thing. You can see this in the gurkas, for example: the Taliban fears them more than the 'traditional' special forces guys, and the gurkas are not generally tall guys. Audie Murphy, WWII, most decorated U.S. soldier was 115 lbs. soaking wet. I saw a photo of medal of honor recipients on a aircraft carrier deck, and they were mostly just average sized-guys. The big wrestler/football types do no dominate in real situations (life and death, not sport), in fact they have a disadvantage. If they were truly the toughest guys as a group, then they should be in the majority of 'tough guys' in war situations. A SEAL instructor commented, "We get Adonises here all the time, and they don't last." Another guy, who is 'near' to a real James Bond (and about 5'6") laughs at the big muscle guys in films, because of his life experience. There have been plenty of 'half sport' street fights where a huge guy tried to bully a martial artist, and the big guy winds up in the hospital just one example of many: after a tournament a huge soldier was ranting on the winner of the tournament in southeast asia. He said, "If this was real, then I'd bleep your bleep bleep" he kept this up, towering over the martial artist. Some people felt sorry for the 'little guy' ... So the huge guy makes his move, and winds up with a broken back. (one can imagine what happens in a life and death situation). So to sum up, the people who can think for themselves see heightism for what it is. Don't let your self image be formed by others or society.
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