Stop comparing people to elephants and dogs
An elephant is an animal and lives a life by eating, drinking, competing for survival and reproducing. Human beings are endowed with the potential of thinking, discerning, abstracting, learning, creativity and self-realization. But, if human beings don't develop these potentials deliberately, they remain as animals for sensual gratifications - merely competing and reproducing.
MOREOVER, ANIMALS are animals. They assist us in many ways and exist as unique beings. And calling people by names like unfazed elephant, barking dog, foolish donkey, cunning fox, bloody bitch, etc should be avoided at all costs.
Both, positive psychology and pedagogy say that every being is unique and no comparison of living beings should be made with one another. The noted philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti holds that comparison is the beginning of violence by disrespecting the uniqueness of individuals and their diversity.
Recently, two animals – an elephant and a dog - have come into limelight when people made comments like 'unfazed elephant' during the recent brutal gang rape in Delhi and a self-proclaimed god-man has called the media ‘barking dog’.
Here, I leave you with some idioms and phrases that involve dogs, elephants and their traits much denounced by pedagogy and positive psychology for making comparisons.
- Bark up the wrong tree
- Barking dogs seldom bite
- Dog and pony show
- Dog days
- Dog eat dog
- Dog in the manger
- Dog tired
- Dog's life
- Elephant in the room
- Even the dogs in the street know
- Every dog has his day
- Give a dog a bad name
- Gone to the dogs
- Her bark is worse than her bite
- Lap dog
- Lead a dog’s life
- Let sleeping dogs lie
- Memory like an elephant
- Shaggy dog story
- Tail between one’s legs
- Top dog
- White elephant
- You do not get a dog and bark yourself
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