mean

With a 70% discount and a “free leather case and spare charger”, seeing a famous brand smartphone being sold at a “rock-bottom” price on the online market, my cousin happily bought the whole pair. His plan to surprise his wife on the weekend was suddenly ruined. As soon as he took out the “delicious, nutritious and cheap” product to show off, his wife brought it up to her nose to smell it and then harshly said “you bastard”!

In the trembling posture of a victim, my brother tried to argue back weakly and pathetically, “What is it? Is it the seller or the phone?” “You are all mean, all mean! Only your abnormal intelligence is real.”

Sitting down on the chair, my brother lamented: “Yeah, why do I always get stuck with fake stuff?” So, in addition to the rice cooker, two bottles of shampoo and the multi-function hot pot he just bought from the promotional sales group with rewards to “serve” the people at the village hall last week, today in his silly collection, my brother has two more “smart” phones. Disappointed. After a few minutes of pinching his hand and blaming himself, my brother honestly asked his wife: “How do I know if it’s fake?”. His wife was so happy that she even gave him a lesson: “If you don’t want to get stuck with fake stuff, don’t be too real.”

Seeing that the situation had calmed down, I took the opportunity to interrupt, “Sister, what is deu?”. My sister squinted and retorted, “Are you asking for real or are you asking deu?”. Helpless, I retreated to the backstage to confide in “Uncle Google”, yes, what is deu? According to the open-source dictionary Wiktinonari, “Deu is a deceitful act that is so sly that it disregards morality”. But besides deu people, there are also deu goods. That’s right, for several decades now, deu has also been an adjective used to refer to fake goods. That’s not all, to put it bluntly, deu is a collection of all things that are not… real!

However, when discussing the word "scum", we should probably also discuss "scum" people. This is the most dangerous "class" in society. It is dangerous because we may not recognize them, and even if we recognize them, we may not have enough knowledge to deal with the countless schemes that they always possess. Scum disguises itself discreetly in the appearance of ordinary people, even hiding tightly in the cover of decent people. They can be colleagues, neighbors, friends, and it is a disaster if they are the boss, hanging their "scum" over our heads all four seasons. Scum is a kind of invisible, odorless enemy that infiltrates every corner of society. Scum is the convergence of cunning, insidiousness, scheming, inhumanity and extreme opportunism. Flattery and bowing are easily recognizable but least rejected manifestations of scumbags. Around us there are people who live their whole lives without offending anyone… until their goal is achieved, and their conscience turns 180 degrees.

Bad people are very active in creating fake images. Even So Khanh, when appearing, is also:

"A young man

"Nice figure, gentle clothes"

(Nguyen Du)

The "grooming", the "gentleness" on the outside are things used to blind and are themselves bait, a trap to deceive, bribe the gullibility, it also swallows the ability to analyze, it is ready to crush the kindness of people. There is a saying "Half a loaf of bread is half a loaf of bread, half a truth is a lie". The same goes for being mean, being mean is being mean, being mean cannot be divided into levels like low mean, medium mean, high mean. If you are on guard against mean people, you must always devote your energy to the maximum level. Being deceitful is an instinct, an attribute of mean people. In our work journey, we will inevitably meet people who are closer to our boss than our own flesh and blood, but when our boss “retires”, they turn around like strangers, and their main job when our boss lands is to find a way to become blood relatives with… the next boss, but that is only the most rudimentary manifestation of meanness. In the vastness of life, meanness is a million times more sophisticated. In a group, we can temporarily divide people into 4 types: The first type is both good and kind (this type is extremely rare), the second type is kind but not good, the third type is good but mean, and the last type is both not good and mean (this type is extremely harmful). That said, to recognize human qualities requires a whole process. Sometimes when we recognize it, it has already taught them dozens of painful lessons.

Last year, in a campaign for the poor that was broadcast live on national television, hundreds of individuals and businessmen registered to donate gifts worth billions of dong. But then, the joy was short-lived. Some of the owners of the promises in front of the flash lens simultaneously sang the song "let the wind take it away". Poor households are still waiting for the kindness of people who are "both talented and kind" while dozens of plastic signs with billions of this and that have only spiritual value! To put it bluntly, they only take pictures to "make goods" and then abandon the signs to save their lives. Are they mean? We don't know yet, but they are not real! Mean people know how to take advantage of the truth, real people don't know how to take advantage of meanness.

In a completely different story, the public opinion of the whole country was shocked a few days ago when the police of Huong Khe district, Ha Tinh province caught a whole gang of drug-fueled parties in which at least 2 female teachers were still standing on the podium, and many of the rest were current officials in state agencies. So shocking. Just like the case of the teacher allocating slapping quotas or the case of the principal calling male students to the room to sexually abuse them, this time the public opinion called out the name of the specialized ministry. Here and there, there were hints of resignations, the public opinion is really "bad"!

Have you ever been cheated on by someone? Not yet? Yes, you may have escaped, but your relatives, your friends, your colleagues…don’t say they have never been victims! So what should we do? Eliminate it or accept living with cheaters like living with cheaters? Tolerating cheaters is ultimately tolerating evil. “Human nature is inherently good” (The Three Character Classic). People are born with a good and kind nature, but when they grow up, due to the influence of social life, their temperament changes, and evil can arise. It will be a failure if we are pessimistic, we give up, we ignore evil and cheaters. We may not be able to completely eliminate it, but I think we can limit it. If we dare to be straightforward, if we know how to set an example, if we are willing to forgive, then surely the people around us will change. If you have the chance, please be bold in choosing for yourself kind leaders. A rogue person is scary, but a rogue person in power is even more terrible, and the prevalence of rogue behavior is more likely to “go into depth”. “Start where you stand. Use what you have. Do what you can” - (Famous quote).

A “steel” fence is urgently needed to prevent scoundrels from sneaking into public power. In a recent statement, General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong frankly expressed his view that “We are determined not to include opportunists in planning”. That’s right, opportunists are scoundrels, and scoundrels become worse the more they are used. However, the problem is how to recognize the opportunists and eliminate them? It’s very difficult, when they haven’t been exposed, they are all “groomed” and “gentle”. Scum is really scary, but after all, real scoundrels are not as scary as… fake scoundrels!