{"id":9102,"date":"2012-02-21T12:08:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T19:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=9102"},"modified":"2012-02-21T12:08:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T19:08:19","slug":"when-to-be-meek-how-about-never","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/21\/when-to-be-meek-how-about-never\/","title":{"rendered":"When to be meek? How about never?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t get me wrong. Bryan Caplan makes some pretty good points in his short commentary “When to be Meek.”<\/a><\/p>\n

He notes that the oft-given advice to stick up for yourself and demand what you want can backfire on you. He’s got a point. If you want to spend your life and career in the conventional middle of things, a whole lot of “please, may I” and “yes, sir” might go farther than confronting the boss and Making Demands.<\/p>\n

But who the heck wants to spend life in the conventional middle of things?<\/p>\n

Oh, I’m all for “please” and “thank you” — but given as merited, not as a strategy for getting ahead or getting along.<\/p>\n

Caplan opens his argument with the phrase, “If you’re not getting what you want out of life …” then offers assertiveness or meekness as the sole alternatives. His assumption seems to be that getting what you want out of life is largely a matter of either being dominant or subservient — that is, it’s a matter of asking others.<\/p>\n

But really, to “get what you want out of life” the world is filled — loaded, replete, brimming! — with alternatives to both<\/i> bold assertiveness and forelock tugging.<\/p>\n

To wit:<\/p>\n

* Independence — not being beholdin’ and not asking “superiors” for anything<\/p>\n

* Sneakiness<\/p>\n

* Persuasion<\/p>\n

* Going around an existing system or creating another<\/p>\n

* Collaboration\/cooperation<\/p>\n

* Creativity<\/p>\n

* Independence. Never mind that I already said that. It bears repeating.<\/p>\n

You can probably think of lots more.<\/p>\n

When to be meek? In the confessional, perhaps. Or when awed by serious greatness. But even Jesus, when he said the meek shall inherit the earth, wasn’t actually being<\/i> meek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don’t get me wrong. Bryan Caplan makes some pretty good points in his short commentary “When to be Meek.” He notes that the oft-given advice to stick up for yourself and demand what you want can backfire on you. He’s got a point. If you want to spend your life and career in the conventional middle of things, a whole lot of “please, may I” and “yes, sir” might go farther than confronting the boss and Making Demands. But who the heck wants to spend life in the conventional middle of things? Oh, I’m all for “please” and “thank you”…<\/p>\n

Continue readingWhen to be meek? How about never?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-and-spirit","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}