CHARMAINE V.

SANGLITAN GE 5 08/05/19

Topic: Crab Mentality

People’s nature of mentality

Have you ever got a chance to observe bucket full crabs? Have you ever noticed
how would they interact with each other? Does their action seem familiar to you? Can
you relate to any of these in some instances in your life?

If your answer is yes that you have ever got a chance to observe a bucket full of
crabs, then I bet you have noticed that they will all tries to escape out in that bucket, but
whenever as soon as one of them finally has the opportunity to escape, the other crabs
will try to pull that crab down and back to the bucket.

Every human being has the inner awareness of conscience which stands as our
guide towards our actions and lead us to think that “Am I doing the right thing or not?”
and also “What would be the consequences if I will choose to do this?” Unfortunately
even though we have this “conscience” in ourselves we still tend to do the wrong way.
Sometimes like the “crabs” we drag other people down and let our jealousy, greed,
envy, grudge, and pride to get along our way. There were some point wherein we keep
on insisting our perspective, judgment and criticism without being mindful of what would
other people may feel.

In our country we have this saying of “Utang na loob” which is a crab mentality.
Just for instance we have a family who works as an OFW. We insist that member to
give a souvenir and gifts from abroad as a way of debt of obligation of that particular
person. If ever he or she wouldn’t do it so, those people who does not receive that gift
will drag him/her down.

It’s inevitable that there will be people who try to pull us down and block our way
from reaching our dreams, passion, and beliefs. What we all can do to keep each
other’s relationship to manifest is that we all should try to pull each other up rather than
down. We should be happy for someone’s success in life. Instead of being jealous we
should strive hard in our own in order for us to be fulfilled. Dragging other people down
wouldn’t make us better than them. However it will just cause misunderstanding,
argument and conflict. In addition, we shouldn’t ask anything for return for any good
things we’ve done for other people. Let us all just be mindful, respectful, and supportive
and be contented of what we have.