I am going to show you why that is not right.
If you have ever read the book Gulliver’s travels, you know all about the crazy adventures Lemuel Gulliver went on. On each adventure, Gulliver had an issue going on with the people/creatures on that Island. On the first Island Gulliver went to, he ended up in the Kingdom of Lilliput. The people there were much smaller than Gulliver and at first were afraid of him. Eventually, Gulliver gained their trust and the Lilliputians wanted Gulliver to fight the people of Belfescu, who declared war on them. Since Gulliver is so big and mighty compared to them, it would be easy for him to defeat them, but Gulliver did not do it because he didn’t want to hurt them. The Lilliputians turned against Gulliver after that and he knew that would probably happen, but he did what he thought was right because he knew it wouldn’t be a fair fight. On the second Island Gulliver travels to, he ends up in the Kingdom of Brobdingnag. The people on this Island were much bigger than Gulliver. Gulliver was harassed, by not only the people, but the animals and bugs as well. The people there treated him like he didn’t have feelings just because he was so much smaller than them, so Gulliver did not like being on that Island at all and he eventually found a way to get home. On the last Island the Houynhms’ chained up the Yahoos for no reason, only because they looked different or weird to them.
After I read the book and saw how there was always conflicts because of someone’s size or strength, I realized that the main issue was about might versus right. In each situation there was always someone that had more physical power than everyone else, like on the first Island Gulliver was much stronger than the people of Lilliput and Belfescu, but he still didn’t abuse that power or try to hurt them, he did what was right. Also, when Gulliver was on the second Island, the people of Brobdingnag were much bigger than Gulliver and they harassed him. Many people including myself can relate to these issues because I think many people know what it’s like to be harassed by someone who is “tougher” than you, or you’ve had moments when someone made you feel small or maybe you had to do the right thing even though you know others will not agree with you. It is better to do what is right, rather than hurting others physically or mentally, just because others want you to or because you are bigger than them.
A real world issue that related to this would be the Government abusing their power. In an article I read, one of the paragraphs discussed how after 9/11 the Government would torture people they suspected as enemy’s, which is not right because some of those people could have been completely innocent.
Now, I hope you learned a couple things from this. One, do not abuse power, even if you are stronger than others or you think you’re “cooler” than others, that does not mean you can bring others down. Two, if you are scared to do what is morally right because you’re worried about what others will think, just don’t worry about the people that will judge you because that just means they were never really a true friend.
sincerely,
someone
