The Crab mentality is a widely used term in the term given to people who always love to pull down other people who are succeeding in life and getting ahead of them.
People with crab mentality are everywhere. You can encounter them on social media, where they are always busy criticizing like facebook instead of appreciating the news and stories about the achievements of people.
This attribute is also one of the major causes why our country and Africa is not progressing. It doesn’t promote unity, humility and responsibility. I believe we have to get rid of it for our personal and national development. And the first step to eradicate this negative trait from us is to be aware of it. We can all be guilty of crab mentality, and here are 8 signs that someone is having this unfavorable quality.
1. They are too proud of themselves and treat others as inferior beings. You can sense a breeze of arrogance from people with crab mentality. They feel like they have royal blood flowing in their veins, and they treat others as peasants. When they earn some achievements of their own, whether big or small, they brag it to everyone to position themselves higher from the rest of the people. And that is why they will always look down on you, especially if you’re not in their level who came from the province of riches. They can be racist to their own race,and tribalistic .
2. They panic when their comrades are happy and improving. Aside from arrogance, you can also smell envy, jealousy and bitterness from this kind of people. They freak out when the people they look down on are rising or progressing beyond them. It gives them a terrible feeling of insecurity. That’s why they will try to pull them down, either by harsh words or by unkind actions. You will see them giving bitter comments on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels. They can be irritating, as they may spoil your own little achievement or happiness. So watch out!
3. Their motto in life is “if I can’t have it, neither can you”. They rather wish everyone will fail than let themselves fail while others are succeeding. They represent the crabs in the bucket where the crabs can easily escape from the bucket, but instead, they grab and pull down each other in a selfish competitive manner which prevents any of them to escape, resulting to their collective demise. In other words, people who have a crab mentality are selfish and they don’t have any sense of sacrifice. They are actually the opposite of upliftment who are known to love pulling people down by cooprative work.
4. They are full of positivity for themselves but full of negativity for others. They only see the good things in themselves, but they’re blind when it comes to their negative characteristics. When it comes to how they view other people, it becomes the opposite. They only see the bad things of other people while they’re blind to their positive deeds. That is why instead of appreciation, what you will get from them are nothing but negative criticisms. Some of these criticisms are valid while others are just invented to mess up your achievements.
5. They blame people for their failures rather than help them. What is more disgusting about these people who have a crab mentality is that they will pull you down further when you’re already down. When they realise that they are down,they brainwash and turn the minds of others into confusion.instead of becoming the helpers,they are using the principle of PHD-Pull Him Down. Rather than giving people a helping hand, these “crabs” break the already broken souls and hearts. And the saddest part of this, these “crabs” include some public officials who are supposed to give us first-hand public service.
6. They treat their people as competitors. Words of unity and cooperation are not in their vocabulary. They always treat others as competitors instead of teammates. You can find this kind of people everywhere. In the church, in your office, and even in a cooperative organization, they could be there. Again, envy, jealousy and selfishness cause them to refrain from cooperating. Instead of giving victory to the whole company or team, they just want to grab all the success for themselves. And just like what we discussed in #3, they rather let the team lose, than let it win without making themselves as the star player.
7. They spend most of their time talking about people rather than discussing ideas and solutions. Again, it’s because they treat people as their competitors. Instead of thinking about the brilliant ideas and solutions that can make our nation a better country, they spend most of their time ensuring that no other person can become better than them. When our nation faces a crisis, they will be more active in talking about how people become worthy of suffering rather than discussing the solutions that will help people end their sufferings.
8. They are not problem solvers but problem creators. They never show Compassion or become a problem solver because it is not in their nature.compassion is a great virtue that enables us to understand the feelings of other people,thereby we become problem solvers. It lets us walk in other people’s shoes and appreciate the lives they are living. But people with crab mentality lack compassion. They are inconsiderate and ignorant of the many people they are offending. They don’t care about the many hearts they are breaking. Well, what can we expect? They only care for themselves.
Remember again,lions do not associate with dogs.
I remain yours
Dipo Olatade
