Chihuahuas And Mongrels

Chihuahuas or chiwawas are cute little dogs whose origin is traced Mexico. They are good as pets and like special treatment. When it comes to food, they like a special diet like the guys who used to be called malingerers in boarding school. Chiwawas like attention, being spoilt and pampered. They are shampooed, pedicured and have potties. They are cute to have around and be seen with. They are good for Instagram and photo shoots and even know how pose for photos. They are not just pets but also accessories. One looks cool flaunting them. When being walked by the owner, they are always on a leash lest they wander too far and get lost or hurt. They are also expensive to maintain. They are prone to barking than other dogs. But they rarely bite.

Mongrels on the other hand are not very cute, their origin story is unknown. These are the dogs your grandmother owns in the village. Ngui, Guok, Esese, Jimmy, Bosco. They don’t require special diet. They eat whatever is available. If the owner eats Sukumawiki and Ugali, that’s what they will eat. If the owner did not leave some leftovers, they try their luck at the hostile neighbor. They have never heard of shampoos, pedicures and potties. The closest they get to a pedicure is a broken toe after being pelted by a rock by the village sociopaths. They are not good for Instagram and photo shoots. They don’t know how to pose for photos. They are not pets but security officers. When taking a walk with the owner, they go ahead, playing and hunting. They are cheap to maintain.

Question, when the owner dies, which dog is likely to survive?

The unintended side effect of overprotection is that it hinders one from learning to take responsibility and developing self efficacy.

Martin Seligman conducted an experiment on learned helplessness whereby dogs raised in a laboratory cage and those impounded from the streets were subjected to electric shocks. He found that lab dogs were more likely to succumb to stress than impounded dogs. In other words, mongrels learn to roll with the punches.

In Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues for the need to allow stressors, variability, mistakes and failures in life. This leads to growth and robustness in dealing with challenging and unpredictable situations. Overprotection on the other hand leads to the fragile, easily-breakable handle-with-care situations. Over-intervention makes one fragile and inevitably leads to disintegration and collapse in the face of unpredictable situations.

Vaccination requires that a little bit of the virus is introduced into your body so that you develop immunity against future attacks from the virus. By allowing some form of adventure, discomfort and unpredictability we are inoculated against adverse events. Creating an artificial safety net where we are insulated from every form of discomfort is akin to living in a laboratory cage. We are safe and have everything in a cage but will struggle to survive when released to the world.

The king in the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale could not protect her daughter from the curse of getting pricked even after trying to eliminate all the spindles in the kingdom. At some point in life we will have to deal with pain, rejection, failure, death and so forth.

Mongrels show up even when the chips are down.

The point is not to subject them to suffering.

But to not interfere.

Life is life

Fabio