The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered Down

It is a Japanese proverb which means "A person whose behaviour differs from norms of the community will get forcefully coerced to conform it".

Well, this is what I read on the space device called the Internet. But the internet doesn't tell everything, especially in the era where the definitions which have been blindly recited for eons are losing their meanings every second. So let me change the meaning of this proverb a little:

"A person whose behaviour differs from the norms of the community will have to face a lot of challenges and struggles, but it doesn't necessarily mean they won't succeed."

There have been so many real life examples where the majority wins over what's right. Does that mean if the majority of people believe in sin, then the sin can be called a "virtue"? That can't be right. A sin is a sin, no matter how many people believe in it. If Madam Rosa Parks hadn't taken her stand that day on the bus, if all the others who were under the oppression of the powerful hadn't stood for themselves, nothing would've changed. Change needs resistance in order to come into full use.

We're in 2022 and even the calendars are not in their teenage anymore, but the world still got a long way to go before it actually grows up. Society is so critical of change that anything different-than-usual is frowned upon.  It's high time, change is not just accepted but celebrated by our society. Live and let live. Now, to end this article of mine I'd like to mould the proverb I began with:

"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down until you understand that it can also be used as a peg on the wall".

.    .    .