Saturday, September 15, 2018

What does "The Courage to be Disliked" mean?

Source
I've shared a lot of nuggets of wisdom from "The Courage to Be Disliked" by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga in the past weeks but I realized I haven't explained the significance of the book's title yet.   So what does "courage to be disliked" mean?  Freedom.

The Philosopher in the book explains that if you are disliked by someone, it is proof that you are  living in freedom, a clear sign that you are living in accordance with your own principles.  

Here are the Philosopher's words:

Conducting oneself in such a way as to not be disliked by anyone is an extremely unfree way of living, and is also impossible. There is a cost incurred when one wants to exercise one’s freedom. And the cost of freedom in interpersonal relationships is that one is disliked by other people...

Suppose that I had two choices in front of me—a life in which all people like me, and a life in which there are people who dislike me—and I was told to choose one. I would choose the latter without a second thought. Before being concerned with what others think of me, I want to follow through with my own being. That is to say, I want to live in freedom.

Simply put, if you're doing what you're doing in life to be liked and avoid being disliked, then you're not living in freedom.  But if you're able to do things you believe in (no matter what other people think about you) and provided you're able to contribute to others, then you could say that you have the courage to be disliked.  You are living your life in total freedom. ðŸ’™