Words are like swords…
(Baonghean.vn) - The two stories that made waves on Facebook last week have one thing in common, which is that they both had to endure the harsh gossip of the world. Gossip is invisible but sharper than any weapon in this world. Words are like daggers, like sharp swords, freely thrown around without regard for the consequences.
Last week, the two hottest stories on social media were both related to love: one was the engagement of a famous businessman to a well-known actress; the other was the sincere sharing of a beauty queen about her boyfriend after being crowned. Both were happy stories, but sadly, social media is like a dye shop where when passing through the mouths of many people, everything seems to change color!
“Looks like a grave of love”, “Loyal design full of sound”, “As messy as a tombstone”… are a few of the countless rude comments about the design of the engagement ceremony space of the famous couple. Many wedding party designers said that the design was inspired by the Indochine style - a combination of two Eastern and Western cultures, with white and blue tones, creating a cool feeling, lotus flowers evoking the elegance and gentleness of traditional Vietnamese women, bamboo clumps implying gentlemen… Indochine is also a design style that the actress loves, because through the pictures shared on Facebook, it can be seen that the apartment she has been living in for many years is also designed in a similar style.
To clarify, whether the design is beautiful or ugly, luxurious or rustic, impressive or bland… depends on each person’s aesthetic perception. People have different opinions, no one can impose their subjective opinions on anyone else, especially when it comes to preferences. What is worth mentioning here is the attitude towards other people’s fun.
Our ancestors taught: "No one cries at a wedding, no one laughs at a funeral", implying that weddings are happy events in life, but during the organization process it is difficult to satisfy and please everyone, so whatever happens, just happily ignore it; similarly, filial piety always requires understanding, because when family matters are confusing, there will be places that are not fully taken care of... Deeper still, weddings and funerals are two big events in life, everyone must inevitably go through them, teachings on proper behavior are also implicit reminders for each person to leave a way out for themselves, because "laugh at others today, others will laugh at you tomorrow".
Few words, many meanings, Vietnamese people since childhood, must have been taught by their parents like that. Yet in this era of social media, quick brains are fueled by emotionless buttons, arousing the pleasure of the crowd, and then carelessly posting lines of criticism, slander and cruelty to the point of fear! Some people say it is well deserved, very satisfying (because the bride is considered a "third person"); others viciously predict the early bloom and early fall of the relationship; some even... write toad poems, with sarcastic rhymes, thinking it is humorous...
Similarly, the story of a beauty queen who was crowned at the age of 21 publicly revealing her boyfriend, sincerely sharing about her 6-year relationship also created a wave of public opinion beyond control. Some people congratulated her, others laughed at her. The image of the beauty queen’s boyfriend was found by netizens in the blink of an eye, and all sorts of expressions were attached to his face. The beautiful youthful love through the keyboard of the world turned into a childish love that was not respected. There were comments like “I lost my lover”, “happiness is fragile”, “beauty queens must love rich men to be worthy”…
When she innocently shared about her private feelings, the beauty queen must have simply thought that she was telling the truth, and she openly expressed it proudly, without hiding anything. That is the positive, straightforward, and responsible attitude of a typical GenZ. However, it seems that life's many events have caused the trust of most netizens to wane, so after that statement, social networks were flooded with uncivilized, tactless, and even uncultured comments and guesses!
The two stories that made waves on Facebook last week have one thing in common: they both had to endure the gossip and harsh words of others. Gossip is invisible, but sharper than any weapon in the world. Words are like daggers, like sharp swords, freely thrown around without regard for the consequences. Hidden behind the flashing screens, the mindless keyboards, the unverified fake accounts, evil intentions just pour out, not caring how much pressure and suffering their few comments will cause others. The pressures of life seem to be compressed and accumulated in the mind, and then when they go online, they burst out, venting their anger into the virtual space, saying whatever comes to mind. Social media is a place to express opinions, but at the same time it is also a double-edged sword: wanting to prove that we are knowledgeable people, people who understand morality better than others. So, just waiting for something hot to jump in and comment, analyze, speak to vent anger, to feel satisfied, even unconsciously following the crowd mentality.
Buddhism has the concept of evil speech and karma of speech. Listening to the Buddha's teachings about the consequences that people with evil speech must bear is truly terrifying. One evil word in real life can cause trouble to one or two other people; but on social networks, the consequences of evil speech, of the like and share buttons are much more terrible, can multiply into tens of thousands, even millions of other evil words. And so, the karma of one person's speech can drag countless others into the karma of speech. Even if you are not a Buddhist, do not know or do not believe in profound philosophies, the obvious thing that a decent person living in normal life needs to think about is "turning the tongue seven times before speaking". Because words can spread fragrance, but can also be a sharp sword...
