Tomorrow you didn't, yesterday you won't

If you think social stratification is unfair and should be banished, then rumors and gossip must be the devils to be extorted. Yet I think it is funny how leaders, throngs of activists, and entire societies would fight and speak up against social inequality, but no one bothered to counteract the corrosiveness of rumors and gossip.

Sure, there are advertisements on radios that focus on the harmfulness of gossip and advice listeners not to spread hurtful rumors, but that is the extent of it, and these warnings only appear in the recent years in light social issues, such as large scale suicides.

So why are rumors and gossip allowed to continue breeding even when everyone is aware of the consequences? Perhaps it is because everyone IS aware of the consequences. People intentionally exercise rumors and gossip to tarnish a prominent figure’s reputation or taint his image, either as an act of vengeance or so that his fall would catapult the person’s career in its wake. They are usually people who are at the lower rungs in a social ladder because they are lazy, weak minded and too spineless to stand strong in the currents of life, resolving to playing dirty in climbing to a higher position instead of working hard and proving their capabilities.

And this is not just exclusive to immature adults, people of all ages practice rumors and gossip like some cult, for popularity, to gain preference, to seek attention and God knows what other twisted reasons. Though the ones who get the worst of it are the celebrities; tiny news being pumped up and exaggerated or atrocious news without a head or tail; while most are for publicity or an entertainment journalist’s way of milking cash, some are written to show that movie stars have flaws too, that they mistakes because they are human, just like us.

Hence, if we want to see a crack of light in the dark clouds of social stratification, we would have to do away with our habit of gossiping, because, sociologically, it disrupts the trust level, it encourages suspicions towards a person’s or company’s credibility, and it favors the antagonists and cultivates a generation of grudge-holders.

Rumors and gossip are not sinful indulgences, so there would not be a sweet aftertaste. Besides, what goes up will come down.