Irrational Behaviors

Having been through a divorce, I had to deal with a number of irrational behaviors that, had I reacted to them, could have cost me a lot. I'm talking about more than money.  Having such a huge incentive to not fall into that trap, I was pretty much able to keep my wits about me, find my own private opportunities to vent the frustrations, and move on. I still have my moments, but I have to deal with the other half on occasion and must stay even keeled.

Now that I am blogging and always looking for material, I have been exposed to all sorts of nonsense surrounding the religious right wing nuttery and their complete inability to use any sort of reason and logic.  It is easy to resort to strident and controversial tone when dealing with these people.  It is also easy to express these frustrations because, quite frankly, I will never meet the people.  Mostly, it's a venting ritual with the hopes of opening some people's eyes by throwing in some reason in between the ranting.  I explored a bit of that in this post.


Then you get the middle ground.  Crazy people that you know, have to interact with, or at least, are likely to run into at social gatherings, work, etc.

I posted awhile back about social networking and Facebook acquaintances.  I talked about a specific incident that had occurred.  I had hoped that the irrational behavior of the person in question would be short lived.  However, this has proven to not be the case.  One must not underestimate the sticktuitiveness of crazy.  I will provide a general sequence of events up to today.

• I committed some unknown heinous act upon this person.
• This person blocks me from seeing anything on their Facebook page.
• I decide that blocking someone in this manner is a pointless exercise and defriended this person.
• A friend of mine, who has been blocked for many months, agrees, and also defriends this person.
• This person now decides to attack, rob, and place a bounty on my Mafia Wars character (and to a lesser extent, my friend).
• I blog about incident while keeping this person anonymous.
• This person attacks via Mafia Wars again the next day.
• I post a Facebook status update about childish and petty behavior while keeping this person anonymous.
• This person attacks again.
• I again post a Facebook update ridiculing this person's behavior, again, keeping them anonymous.
• I send an email to this person asking for clarification of what I did.
• Next day, attacks again.
• I send an email reminding this person that I have received no clarification.
• I again post an update, but this time, I called out the person's name.
• This person attacks again.
• Next day, attacks again.
• I choose to ignore this person for a while.  No status updates or blog posts.
• Next day, attacks again while on vacation.
• Next day, attacks again while on vacation.
• Next day, attacks again.
• Next day, attacks again.

First, it was wrong of me to call the person out by name.  It was a very lame attempt on my part to publicly mock this person in an attempt to maybe shame them into stopping their behavior.  I have no idea if this person is even aware of that posting.  It didn't work.

So, at this point, what is one supposed to do?  I assume that maybe a mutual friend is passing on my Facebook status, but I don't know for sure.  I have firmly established that even if this person was not aware of my Facebook status updates, the attacks would continue.  Calling out this person did nothing to change the behavior, assuming they were aware of it.  Requesting clarification from this person, twice, results in request being ignored.

To continue to ignore the behavior while allowing this person to continue to engage in this childish behavior by attacking a proxy of myself does not seem to me to be the correct parenting choice.  I am against any sort of corporal punishment with a child, so spanking this person is out of the question.  Since this person is crazy, simply asking them to stop seems pointless.

OK.  Honestly, I'm not sure I want this person to stop, because it simply illustrates the ability of this person to hold a grudge for very long periods of time.  I don't really even care if I never find out what I may have said or did, because it is irrelevant.  It is unlikely that my crime will have fit the punishment that is being doled out to my Mafia Wars characters (and me, by proxy).  I can pretty much imagine this person laughing as they continue to press the "Attack" button on their computer.  It is sad and irrational.

It has nothing to do with the virtual damage inflicted on my MW character either.  I get "killed" several times a day.  It's no big deal.  In addition, I have made no attempts to retaliate for these "in-game" actions myself.  I could just as easily rob and put a bounty on this person's character, but I have chosen not to do so.

What I cannot do is just simply ignore this person and let them continue on without there being some documentation of the behavior.  I've simply had enough of this persons snide, under their breath comments, and other irrational, victim mentality meanderings.

So, I hope this is the last time I have to address this person's behavior, although I doubt it.