First Blood | When you put something on someone…push and then are surprised by the reaction

What happens when you expect the worst from someone? You push. They react.
So you push harder. And eventually you say… See? I knew it.

John Rambo is passing through a town in the Northwest. A veteran of the Vietnam War, carrying trauma, he seeks to connect with others. Hoping for hospitality and friendship, he is instead met with hostility and isolation. Pushed to the edge he becomes what they fear him to be and a real threat is unleashed on an otherwise peaceful town. In this story, we see a man presumed to be something…and pushed far enough… he begins to become exactly what he was accused of when we first meet him.

We see this when rhetoric and labels are thrown onto other people and groups before we’ve gathered more information. We decide who someone is. We treat them according to that assumption. And then we’re surprised by their reaction.

The threat we project onto others—and the monsters we perceive them to be—can influence how we treat them. And if we push hard enough, we may help create the very thing we were afraid of. And in doing so, we can bring our greatest fears to a startling reality.

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