Page 353 - Word Power Made Easy: The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary

SESSION 28

There are few of us who do not need warm and nourishing relationships to lead a ful lled
life.
Psychology makes clear that loving and being loved are important elements in emotional
health, but also points out the necessity for expressing, rather than repressing, our
hostilities. (You know how good you feel once you blow o steam? And how much closer
you can become attached to someone once you directly and honestly vent your anger,
resentment, or irritation instead of bottling it up and seething in fury?)

It is a mark of your own emotional maturity if you can accept hostility as well as dish it
out. So let us pretend, in order to encourage you to become personally involved in the
introductory ten words of this chapter, that each paragraph in the next few pages
accurately describes you. What label exactly fits your personality?

IDEAS

1. slave driver

You make everyone toe the mark—right down to the last centimeter. You exact blind,

unquestioning obedience; demand the strictest conformity to rules, however arbitrary or
tyrannical; and will not tolerate the slightest deviation from your orders. You are, in short,
the very epitome of the army drill sergeant.

You are a martinet.

2. bootlicker

You toady to rich or in uential people, catering to their vanity, attering their ego. You
are the personi cation of the traditional ward heeler, you out-yes the Hollywood yes men.
And on top of all these unpleasant characteristics, you’re a complete hypocrite. All your
servile attentions and unceasing adulation spring from your own sel sh desires to get
ahead, not out of any sincere admiration. You cultivate people of power or property so that

you can curry favor at the opportune moment.

You are a sycophant.

3. dabbler

Often, though not necessarily, a person of independent income, you engage super cially

in the pursuit of one of the ne arts—painting, writing, sculpturing, composing, etc. You do