On bad advice

My good friend Adelaine has recently written an entry about bad advice people give on relationships and I thought I might chip in my two cents to enlarge the circle of awareness toward the cancerous disease.

I totally agree with her that there are people out there who like to think that they are doing the world a favour by sharing their "wisdom", until some serious damage is done as a result of someone putting their advice into practice. They gain practically nothing out of giving the advice (perhaps other than the delusion that they've changed the world for the better), but it is the one who mistakes their folly for wisdom and applies it to real life who has to pay for it. How irresponsible.

Don't get me wrong if you think I'm against giving advice. I do it myself all the time. I'm only against giving stupid advice that are the variations of "if you're bored with your relationship, get married" or "if you're not satisfied with your marriage, have children." That's the kind of thing that pisses a sane man off. And for obvious reasons that apparently aren't obvious enough for some. If getting married could solve almost all relationship problems, the lawyers better start reconsidering their career options. And if having children is the answer to a failing marriage, why do the kids always end up in the psychologist's couch 20 years later?

Count your blessings if you've never come across people who freely offer such advice. But the next time you see them, do yourself a favour and run for your life the other way.