Why you should have foes

This injunction sounds politically incorrect since we are asked to be at peace with everything and everyone from an early age. By saying this, I’m not telling you to cultivate hatred within your heart, but it’s another way of saying that you need to have  values for which you stand and you shouldn’t compromise when those values are at risk in order to preserve “peace”.

Peace is a state of mutual respect, there is no peace when one side is denied, it’s then a state of submission. Having a foe is the opposite of being insipid. To build our character it is required to make choices which implies not tolerating some behaviors and to be unpleasant sometimes. Indeed, we tend to want to please everyone and we end up not pleasing ourselves.

Moreover, on the path to personal progress, we may be encouraged but also envied, and because we want to avoid enemies, we tend to remain mediocre. Fear is an enemy that all of us need to fight if we really wish to improve our condition.

Sometimes, it is required to end relationships — either family ones or friendships— because they keep us on  at a very low level of satisfaction and pull us downward. Having foes helps us to be aware of the directions we want to avoid and consequently to stay on the track we should stay on.

There is no harm in making choice, the greatest misery of mankind is the absence of decision or a certain lukewarm of character. Our character is tested through conflicts and difficulties of existence, and only the decisions that are based on deeply-rooted values could bring relevant and meaningful outputs.

You can name in another way what I call foe if you don’t feel comfortable with this designation,;maybe “dark side”, “anti-hero” etc.