When Insult Upon Injury Becomes The Last Straw That Breaks the Camel’s Back

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (American poet, 1807-1882)

There was a little girl, who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead,
And when she was good, she was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

She stood on her head, on her little trundle bed,
With nobody by for to hinder;
She screamed and she squalled, she yelled and she bawled,
And drummed her little heels against the winder.

Her mother heard the noise, and thought it was the boys
Playing in the empty attic,
She rushed upstairs, and caught her unawares,
And spanked her, most emphatic.

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Insult

Source: Google

verb

verb: insult; 3rd person present: insults; past tense: insulted; past participle: insulted; gerund or present participle: insulting

ɪnˈsʌlt/

speak to or treat with disrespect or scornful abuse.

“you’re insulting the woman I love”

synonyms:	offend, give/cause offence to, affront, abuse, be rude to, call someone names, slight, disparage, discredit, libel, slander, malign, defame, denigrate, cast aspersions on, impugn, slur, revile, calumniate; More
antonyms:	compliment, flatter, complimentary, polite

noun

noun: insult; plural noun: insults

ˈɪnsʌlt/

a disrespectful or scornfully abusive remark or act.

“he hurled insults at us”

synonyms:	abusive remark, jibe, affront, slight, snub, barb, slur, backhanded compliment, injury, libel, slander, defamation, abuse, disparagement, depreciation, impugnment, revilement, humiliation, indignity, insolence, rudeness; More
antonyms:	compliment

a thing so worthless or contemptible as to be offensive.

“the present offer is an absolute insult”

MEDICINE

an event which causes damage to a tissue or organ.

“the movement of the bone causes a severe tissue insult”

Origin

Mid 16th century (as a verb in the sense ‘exult, act arrogantly’): from Latin insultare ‘jump or trample on’, from in- ‘on’ + saltare, from salire ‘to leap’. The noun (in the early 17th century denoting an attack) is from French insulte or ecclesiastical Latin insultus . The main current senses date from the 17th century, the medical use dating from the early 20th century.

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To Add Insult to Injury

Source: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/add+insult+to+injury

To exacerbate an already problematic situation in a way that is humiliating; to make someone who has just experienced injury or defeat, feel worse about the situation with one’s words. A: “Well, it’s not like you were having a great season before you broke your leg.” B: “Thanks for adding insult to injury.” I was already late for work and, to add insult to injury, I spilled coffee all over myself.

To add insult to injury

Fig. Cliché to make a bad situation worse; to hurt the feelings of a person who has already been hurt. First, thebasement flooded, and then, to add insult to injury, a pipe burst in the kitchen. My car barely started this morning, andto add insult to injury, I got a flat tire in the driveway.

To add insult to injury

Hurt a person’s feelings after doing him or her harm; also, make a bad situation worse. For example, Not only did theclub refuse him, but it published a list of the rejected applicants-that’s adding insult to injury, or The nearest parkingspace was half a mile away, and then, to add insult to injury, it began to pour : The phrase is an ancient one, evenolder than its often cited use in the Roman writer Phaedrus’s fable of the bald man and the fly. A fly bit the head of abald man, who, trying to crush it, gave himself a heavy blow. The fly then jeered, “You want to avenge an insect’s stingwith death; what will you do to yourself, who have added insult to injury?” In English it was first recorded in 1748.

To add insult to injury

COMMON: If someone or something adds insult to injury, they make a bad situation worse by doing or causing another bad thing. She stood there and made him wash every part of his body. She then added insult to injury by trimming his hair and making him wear a linen shirt several sizes too big for him. Birth is such a shock and what usually follows adds insult to injury. The poor little thing is held upside down and slapped. Note: You can use to add insult to injury or adding insult to injury to introduce a further unpleasant thing that has happened and that you are reporting. The driver of the car that killed Simon Collins got away with a £250 fine. To add insult to injury, he drove away from court in his own car.

To add insult to injury

To do or say something that makes a bad or displeasing situation even worse.

This phrase comes from Edward Moore’s play The Foundling (1748): ‘This is adding insult to injuries’.

To add insult to injury

Make a bad relationship with somebody worse by offending them even more: She forgot to send me an invitation to her party and then added insult to injury by asking to borrow my jacket!

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For all those readers who have not yet familiarized themselves with this blog site – “HOOKED ON INSPIRATION’S BLOG” (www.hookedoninspiration.com) is a blog site that has dedicated itself vastly to the very sincere attempt at the creation of “A Better Tomorrow; A Better Future and A Better World.” This is no longer a distant dream; there are 125 blogs (as of today) penned by this author on this website. Each and every blog has been published to the general public of the world.

Let’s go back to the wording of the very pertinent nursery rhyme at the beginning of this particular blog.

It’s unfortunately quite true that some people have a distinct, “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” personality.

“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is an iconic story of a character who has multiple personalities – basically the story is written based on this disorder. The story became so well known that the phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” is used to describe a person whose moral character is extremely different from one situation to the next.”

Jekyll & Hyde behavior is the description of a dual personality that alternates between phases of good and evil behavior. [“After the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson]

While the illustration of a borderline personality disorder is an extreme case, this sort of behavior is frankly more commonplace than you can ever imagine. IT’S ENTIRELY A MATTER OF CONVENIENCE FOR SOME PEOPLE. Such people can be good and congenial at one moment of time; but at the very instant that their needs are not met, they portray a much darker, wicked and horrid side to their personality. It’s like a power switch for them – they can turn on (or off) good behavior at will and very much as per their whims and fancies. A lot of such behavior stems from the ulterior motives and hidden agenda that many people have. It becomes extremely difficult to deal with such temperamental people on a day-to-day basis – one has to often wonder where one stands with such people at any given point in time. Needless to add, that such behavior is neither desirable nor acceptable. ONE HAS TO LEARN THE ART OF BENEVOLENCE AND COMPASSION TOWARDS EVERYONE PER SE. IT IS NOT LIKE A LIGHT SWITCH THAT YOU TURN ON AND OFF AS PER YOUR WHIMS. NOBODY CAN EVER SAY THIS IS EASY TO DO BUT IT TENDS TO BE A VERY GOOD REFLECTION OF YOUR OWN CHARACTER TRAITS AND PERSONALITY. LEARN TO TREAT PEOPLE AS GOOD AS YOU ARE AND CERTAINLY NOT AS BAD AS THEY ARE.

IN SHORT, LEARN TO LOOK BEYOND THE END OF YOUR NOSE. THERE IS A WORLD OF PEOPLE WITH FEELINGS OUT THERE, IN CASE YOU FAILED TO NOTICE IT.

It’s very offensive and totally insulting when people who we know pointedly ignore us – just because things have not gone exactly the way that they wanted them to go. THAT’S CALLED INSULT.

INSULT UPON INJURY takes place when, for example, certain people who have purposely and willfully ignored us for years together, suddenly telephone, completely from out of the blue, with a request for help or advice – just as a total matter of their convenience.

I’ll tell you what you ought to do in such a circumstance. Make it a point to go out of your way to help such people – it’s not to shame or humiliate them but because they largely considered you as the first person to bring a light into the dark tunnel of trouble and despair that they currently find themselves in. HELP AND ASSISTANCE OF ANY SORT SHOULD ALWAYS BE AN UNSTINTING AND UNCONDITIONAL ACTION AND GESTURE. IT SHOULD NOT BE DEPENDENT ON ULTERIOR MOTIVES OR A HIDDEN AGENDA. It’s not considered to be helping another, if you expect rewards, gifts or financial and material benefits from the person to whom you have proffered help to. Such behavior is self-serving and selfish to say the least and feeds greed.

Insult upon injury can take various forms – starting from speech and acts of basic nastiness and meanness and going on to more serious things like slandering another’s character; inflicting mental and emotional abuse; physical and/or sexual abuse; undue cruelty and uncalled-for violence. Some people get a sense of perverse, sadistic pleasure from hurting others. Such behavior can lead to extremely grave, damaging and harmful repercussions. The ‘victim’ of such a willfully carried out act is then likely to take serious retaliatory steps to such intensely provoking behavior. Whatever shape such intense retaliatory steps might take, they largely become A POINT OF NO RETURN.

Be careful then because let me assure you – THERE NEVER WAS (AND NEVER WILL BE) COMPLETE FREEDOM TO DO WHATEVER WE WANT AND WHENEVER IT SO TAKES OUR FANCY. EACH ACTION HAS A CONSEQUENCE AND TRUE MATURITY IS ABOUT BEING ABLE TO BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES OF ONE’S ACTIONS BY LOOKING THEM IN THE FACE.

Don’t let matters escalate to such a level where THE LAST STRAW BREAKS THE CAMEL’S BACK. DO THAT AND KNOW THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO FACE AND DEAL WITH VERY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES.

All of us have been insulted at some point in our lives; but to compound insult with injury is totally inexcusable and completely unacceptable.

Continue willfully such obstructive behavior only if you’re very sure that you don’t mind regressing – it’s one of the greatest obstacles to the creation of a better future and a better world.

DON’T DO IT!!