9 Ideas of Human Existence - Which One is Your's?

Fathima one of the recent contestants on KBC (TV Quiz Show) stood apart from all who have walked in to the show, including the host, for her rare courage and determination. Abused as a 9 year old child she fought her family and the society to not only pull herself out but many other similar girls out of prostitution.

Fathima could have succumbed to her circumstances as many others do, but she made right decisions and fought hard to save herself. Then she could have easily saved herself and escaped the hell. That would have still made her a hero and she would have been right in doing that. But then she stood her ground and saved many other girls from forced prostitution. Today she runs an NGO and works for such girls and saves them from flesh trade.

Why did Fathima do all this? Why she stood-up for not only herself but also for others?

Fathima is an example of combination of good judgement and courage.

In fact when I tried to make alchemy of the power of judgement and courage interesting personality types started to emerge. I call them 9 Existential Personality Types.

In other words, when you combine individuals’ power of judgement and individual courage you get 9 types of human existence-personalities. Here take a look –

1.    Engaged Citizenry: They have extremely good power of judgement and have high individual courage. They stand-up for right issues and fight for others. Their existence is that of an engaged citizenry. They are selfless and high on empathy. Fathima and people like her fall in this type.

2.       Self-Activists: They also have good power of judgement but are not as courageous as the activists. Hence I call them ‘self-activists’. Also for the reasons that they always stand-up for themselves or for people very close to them on issues that are relevant and should be fought. They love their family and themselves. They also believe that each one should fight their on battles and would speak or act in a social issue only if it does not bring any harm to them or to their family.

3.       Critics: People in this type make both correct and incorrect judgement, at times. They are high on individual courage though and do not fear to speak their mind. They are the ‘Critics’. But as all critics do, sometimes they get it right and other times they do get it wrong. Hence many times they may not act as much they speak as they are not always confident of their judgement and constantly seek affirmation.

4.       Bull Fighters: I have always believed that traditional bull fighters in Spain are very courageous but pick up the wrong animal to fight, although it is played as a sport. In short, although they are courageous their judgement levels are questionable. You may call this type as bull fighters or blind-folded bulls themselves.

5.       Defenders: Mediocre levels of judgement and medium-level of individual courage, ‘Defenders’ are always trying to save their backs. They tread with caution and they believe that defence is the best form of offence. They tend to avoid situations as they are unsure about what to do or how to react to the variables at play.

6.       Fickle Mass: The rolling brinjal on a curved plate – this is the fickle-minded mass for you. They do not have good powers of judgement and are easily swayed by the wave. They move with the crowd and change sides by looking at which one weighs heavier. Politicians love them!

7.       Timid: Blessed with good powers of judgement, but too timid to speak-up…Yes, you got it right; they are the ‘Timid’. They complain and criticize in closed circles but can never gather enough courage to speak their mind or stand-up, not even for themselves. Why me? Why should I? – somethings that ‘timid’ constantly ask.

8.       Flatterers: Mediocre on their judgement abilities and inhibited by their cowardice they resort to flattery for their existence. They are extremely low on their self-esteem.

9.       Crawlers: Pity on the poor 'crawlers' for they never ever developed right judgement abilities, whether for their genes or for their ignorance, and are also too scared to fight back. They toil and bleed silently and allow themselves to be exploited.

Earlier research on personality proves that personality is a combination of genes (or what one gets from their parents by birth), conditioning (environment in which an individual grows-up) and situation.

Judgement and individual courage are partly determined by ones’ genes but a large part of it can be conditioned. Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from making mistakes. But while some people learn from their mistakes, others never learn. Highly protected environment breed timid and conversely a different environment can build individual courage and self-esteem.

A big challenge in writing this piece was to ask myself which is my ‘type’. And an even bigger challenge that lies ahead would be to decide which ‘type’ I want my child grow up to be, for conditioning will play a major role. And we as parents will be held accountable.