ARE YOU A BEAST?

 

One of the most brutal of all creatures is the lion. One look at a lion and you will instantly come to grasp the significance of why it’s called the

“ King of the jungle”

 

   In today’s society we have developed a mentality of a lion, a mentality that stereotypically demands a tough guy image. We are constantly bombarded by images on our street corners. These images give us ample examples of what it means to be tough and hard-playing a major role in beast like conduct in our homes, schools and communities.

We as a people often label each other by saying ,

“ Boy, you are a beast ! “ Reinforcing aggressive and animal like behavior with every appearance of ignorance. In our communities, to be a beast means to do and/ or act in an aggressive and superman like way. We call each other dogs to signify our animalistic nature of being hard and tough.

Approaching a situation like a beast doesn’t require much if any thinking at all. In fact, Marcus Garvey once stated, “ Intelligence rules the world and ignorance carries it’s burden.” When you resort to beast like behavior you become like a lion, ignorant and aggressive, carrying the burdens of the world, for true strength lies in being able to tame the beast within and find alternatives in resolving a conflict.

One way you can detain the beast within, and it’s need to resort to primitive ways of resolving conflicts, is simply taming the beast in others, often called not stooping to another’s level. When you don’t lower yourself to another person’s level you tame the beast that dwells within the other person. You disarm the beast and it’s ignorant element from emerging, preventing that person from getting hostile and violent.

A lot of violence and perpetuated killings in our communities are beast-like acts and senseless disregard for human life. A true symbol of being tough and hard can be seen in a man that’s able to face adversity, not with his fist or a gun, but with character. Know with all confidence that circumstances always change, yet one’s character remains the same. It is better to be known for being a man of character than being an ignorant and primitive beast. In the end your toughness will be respected by the way that you handle adversity.

Ask yourself are you a beast ? A person that has lost or was never giving a true knowledge of self and is living a beast like life style, or are you a man something that seems hard to be in todays society.