Mumblings Of a Wandering Soul

          Tom n jerry lovers would remember this in a jiffy. Jerry does something bad (but not so awful, as to invite Tom’s complete wrath) and tom, after catching him, contemplates killing. Two toms appear from nowhere: Angel says “Don’t do it, Tom! He has done no harm. You ought to be friends with him!” the devil (always on the LEFT side- I can’t understand why) says “do it, Tom! You don’t know what harm this brat can cause in the future. Just kill him!”
          Jerry always manages to escape, more often than not by appealing to Tom’s better side. We might laugh it off, but parallels to everyday life can be easily drawn. You want to do something, say quit smoking. The evil keeps repeating itself, “You know you need it, buddy. What is the need to quit? You won’t live forever anyway. Just Do it!”

         The good part might try to say “Ok, you don’t care about yourself- fine. but what about others?”
          Evil retorts, “let them go to hell”.
          Good says, “You will get confidence- It’s a difficult thing, and you will be happy about yourself for doing a good thing.”
          Evil (lifts a line from Sin city): “Nobody ever really quits. A smoker’s a smoker when the chips are down. And your chips are down.”
         And to good effect, adds “Once a Quitter, always a quitter”.

         One might say why can’t we choose the best solution, keeping long term interests in mind. It’s not easy to carry out arguments like this in your head- and expect to win it. The wrong stuff is always easier to believe. 

        Another example. Someone (maybe you, maybe me… Maybe anyone among us.) Isn’t satisfied with his job. Every night the person- sitting alone at home, seeking a few moments of solitude, completely drained- with his head in his hands- looks back at the day he had. No sense of satisfaction, no sense of accomplishment. 
        He starts to think about getting a job he wants to do.  he starts collecting information- and all of a sudden, the Bad guys knocks on the door. “Hey buddy. You thinking of getting a new job? Good. You really are unhappy with this one… but I have some questions.”
        Good Guy (who has just emerged from the bed room): “Go on. I have made my mind, and I’m not going to change the decision.”
        Bad guy (gives his World-famous smirk- and begins):”Good, you have made your mind up. But as far as I can see, you’re not qualified for the thing you wish to do. And there will be Pay reductions- think you overlooked it. What IS the need to quit this job? You get enough money… I agree you will be happier doing the new job, But happiness isn’t the only thing in life. I know you- the job interviews will sink and sink hard.” 
         And he listenscarefully. The good guy hasn’t replied yet, and he buys every word of the bad one, and thinking, “yeah, that’s right. I should just stay miserable. I’m too scared to do something else. I hate this one- but I know it pays well. I’ll just stay here.”
         Good Guy Finally speaks up. “Why are you worried? You know how hard you work. You managed to complete your projects before time. All this when you don’t like the job. Imagine what you can do if you like what you do!”  
         “Ok..” he mumbles. “What about the other things he mentioned?”

         “Why should you worry about the money, boy?” Good one shouts . exasperation. 
“You will get enough to cover your needs. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Finding a job you like- and add 5-6 days to a week?” 
         He starts battling back and forth between these two. All sense in the world asks him to stick with the good guy, and he fully agrees with his thoughts. But the bad guy (on his RIGHT shoulder) keeps talking. all those negative thoughts are mentioned, all the failures he had when he tried something on his own (Bad one promptly forgets to mention the lessons  he learnt- and his failure to repeat the mistakes).  

Yeah, The wrong stuff is always easier to believe.

But believing the right ones aint difficult either.