Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? · 6 December 2014
Fresco of prophet Joel
by Michelangelo and his assistants
This work is in the public domain.
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The thing about self-fulfilling prophesy is we may never know whether we said the prophesy as a prediction of our actions or if our mind controlled our actions to fulfill what our words predicted. It is a mindboggling conundrum, but one that I must tackle due to my most recent words.
Maybe I should go back a bit.
Most people would agree that self-fulfilling prophesy is when somebody says something and then sometime in the future it actually happens. Sometimes the statement is made as a wish or a hope. (I am going to be a professional writer.) Sometimes, it is made negatively. (Never say never.) Sometimes, it is just a statement of the obvious. (Sorry, no example for that one.)
I often tell people that they need to be careful what they say because words have power. Especially, when they say negative things. I remind them that they are the first people to hear whatever it is that they are saying. So they ought to be careful. They do not want the negative stuff becoming self-fulfilling prophesies.
In a recent blog post, I wondered if my friends Mike and Marc would pick on me about my post on being a Twitter cheater. Naturally, they did not. I am not sure if it was because they were waiting for the right moment or if it was because I said they would. Or even if it might be because they knew I was going to write about self-fulfilling prophesy. (In Mike’s words, “That would be weird.”) Regardless of the why, M & M have not done their job.
Yet.
Unfortunately, I heard through the grapevine that M & M are indeed going to do something. Regardless of this notion about self-fulfilling prophesy. (Actually, I got the scoop straight from the horse’s mouth. From the M who wants to be green.) At any rate, apparently my friends are preparing something horrific to get me. I am not sure what it could be, but whatever it is, I hope that it gets me a couple more readers. (Yes Marc, that would double my readership.) However, I am not looking forward to whatever it is.
In some ways, I wish that self-fulfilling prophesy was a type of mind control. For if it was, I could talk M & M out of whatever nefarious plans they might have for my demise. But alas. They are impervious to mind control. Not because they have no minds to control (as the M who wants to be green would say), but because they would see right through the Jedi mind trick. Which of course, does not mean that I will not try to keep them from making my words come back to haunt me. (These are not the droids you are looking for.)
So as is often the case, one silly story leads to another, which leads to yet another.
I was hoping that my words would not come back to haunt me even when I knew they would. Although, I did not think it will come in dramatic fashion, I do know from whom it will come. I just wish this self-fulfilling prophesy stuff was not so accurate.
© 2014 Michael T. Miyoshi
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