You’re probably wondering, “What exactly do you mean by ‘wrong’ when you say that ‘it’s better to do wrong than to do nothing’?” Well, allow me to explain: when I say “do wrong," I don’t mean, “do bad deeds or commit any crimes or anything unlawful.” What I really mean is, “try to do something, even if you know you might fail in the process.”
In case you’re not familiar with the Bystander Effect, it’s basically what happens when someone sees something bad happening to someone else but doesn’t do anything to help if there are other people around. That is usually the case when someone is being bullied by someone else and not one of the people witnessing this does anything that could resolve or least decrease the tension of the situation.
Even if one person gathers enough courage to stand up to this bully, telling him/her to leave the victim alone even if they might wind up with a black eye in the end, it’s far better to have interfered in the first place than to suffer the guilt of worrying over what might have come of the victim afterwards: beat-up, emotionally unstable, or worse, driven to self-harm or suicide.
Now, this outcome would be the extreme way of handling things, but the ideal way to go about this scenario would be to catch the attention of someone who is far more equipped to handle a situation like this, whomever it may be. Any way to help resolve the situation quicker and/or easier is always the right way to go.
I know, I know. The bully/victim scenario has been done to death on any standard TV teen drama, but it’s overdone for a reason: to motivate others to stand up for what’s right.
However, there are cases when there aren’t any clear signs of someone in need of help, one of which being when there is no bully involved, at least in the concrete form of a person: stress from school, home, or possible emergencies that come up, any kind of personal issues or whatever it could be. We have all been there or are probably still there.
So, if you notice someone act out in a way that is unlike him/her (if you have known that person for some time and know how he/she usually acts) or just sense that something isn’t quite right with that person (friend or complete stranger), even if you could be completely wrong about the whole thing, it never hurts to ask what’s wrong or to have that person talk it out either on a walk or over coffee.
Cliché as this may be: “If you see something, say something.”
The Bystander Effect is only one example that displays the lack of action done by anyone capable of taking action. This can apply to anyone who is afraid to do anything that might be “potentially wrong,” one common scenario being a college student majoring in a subject that requires original thought or expression, like creative writing or art. If you happen to fit into either category (I myself am in the former) or in any of the arts/humanities fields, then you know the struggle.
It is always perfectly acceptable to experiment with your style, try what works and what doesn’t, and figure out what you’re trying to say as well as the reason behind it.
That’s what the arts are all about: experimentation. Most importantly, share your work with both the people that can give you the best advice in regards to advancing your craft (your professors and mentors) and the people that care about you enough to support you in all that you do (your friends and family), because these are the people that will serve as your guide in the right direction as well as the motivation to be at your best in all your endeavors.
Even if you didn’t do something quite right, at least you know that you tried something that didn’t work out than never knowing what could have been or what you could’ve done.
It’s always better to fail trying than never having tried at all.
I personally know what it feels like to come up with a brilliant idea but not put it down in words or on paper out of fear of having the idea or my opinion of it be rejected by others, thinking that the idea, fleshed out or not, is potentially not good or interesting enough in comparison to everyone else’s. Trust me: I know that feeling all too well.
I also know how brutal writer’s block can be or how difficult it is to get yourself started on something, but once I do, it’s so easy for me to get so invested in making it just right. I mean, look how this article turned out! It only gets easier when you start doing things with your best interest at heart, whether it could or could not prevail, than not doing them at all.
