We live in a competitive society that pushes every individual to become the best that he can be and contribute to the economic rise and social recognition of their respective countries through hard work and innovation. That sounds like real progress in a forward-thinking global community, but not everybody is game. There are certain individuals that oppose this progressive mindset and decide to go against the flow of modern, headway thinking. I am not going to state opinions about this whole category, but rather a subdivision that is pretty much useless to them and society as a whole: losers.
First, we need a definition of the loser to tell him/her apart from the average Joe so as not make any confusion between them. According to http://www.yourdictionary.com/loser (since I couldn’t find any comprehensive definitions, probably due to everybody’s moral obligation to be politically correct): “The definition of a loser is a person who is defeated or disadvantaged, is habitually failing or who is considered unpopular.” My definition of a loser is more fleshed out and oriented toward all aspects of life: A loser is someone who rejects opportunities coming his way because of laziness, procrastination, incompetence, waste of potential, fear, being antisocial, blaming others and suffering from the “I can do that easily, but I don’t feel like it” syndrome. Let’s elaborate on that.
Losers are lazy. They have a never-ending supply of reasons not to get up and do stuff. They feel bad about it but not bad enough to change that habit. The bed, couch or whatever place they see as a safe, cozy haven offers that escape from all the responsibility lurking just beyond the first door. “There is always tomorrow for the boring stuff,” they say, and then find a more comfortable position and get back to daydreaming or whatever. We all have lazy days but these people take it way too far, making procrastination a daily habit, thinking that greatness can be achieved starting tomorrow and when tomorrow comes they, well, leave greatness for the next day and so on. Being lazy from the age of 18 to 45 is not a “phase”, it is basically a lifetime.
Losers are incompetent, plain and simple. They may occasionally display signs of proficiency but those are “spur of the moment” actions and they are usually not able to follow through. They try to act like they know what they are doing to receive social and professional recognition based on superficial knowledge of the subject they are tackling. The problem is that through procrastination they fail to gain any relevant knowledge and experience in anything, so they are constantly skimming the surface of various subjects with no real intention to deepen that knowledge since it involves putting in the hours, the effort and the interactions that take them away from their safe, non-judgmental haven. They are weak Jacks of all trades, masters of none.
I do not mean to say that losers have nothing going for them. Some have real potential, a talent of some sort that, through work and dedication, can become an asset and serve to pull the loser out of his stagnant state. What happens in reality is that the loser with potential recognizes his/her own capabilities and decides to do nothing about it, except to take in the initial praise received from those who notice the talent, and then live off the echo of that praise for years to come, thinking that they are somehow better than regular, untalented people who have to work hard for what they want. It is the possibility of greatness residing in them that they use as a reason to reject normal opportunities while waiting for that perfect possibility tailored just for them. Needless to say, for most people, that moment never comes.
Fear is the underlying cause of the loser’s non-action oriented lifestyle. Their views on life crumble under careful inspection and they can’t handle it, so they avoid interaction with inquisitive and sociable people, actively eliminating dealings with the larger portion of the community. With critique bursting their bubble of delusion, they have to associate with other losers who share a similar perspective on things. Some losers build their daily habits on the idea that one day they will somehow make it, get everything they want by chance, divine intervention or the recognition of their amazing natural talent by others. They suffer from illusions of grandeur in paradoxical coexistence with their quiet, antisocial demeanor. They fear effort and working hard to achieve what they “know they can achieve,” because, at the end of all that effort, they may find out that they are mediocre, thus completely losing the shaky foundation that their delusions rest upon.
Most losers will blame their deplorable state on something other than them. They can’t accept the responsibility for their mistakes. Their emotional development is usually way behind their actual age so they act according to the emotions of a more immature person.
The loser mindset is based on fragile concepts meant to support flimsy and insubstantial views of the world combined with an insecure opinion of oneself, too delicate to withstand the honest opinions of others. I think we as a society are responsible for the propagation of the loser mindset and the improper handling of these individuals in our attempts to correct such behavior.
