05.04.10 The 8th Driver of Negative Gossip

8. Inferiority Complex

Inferiority complex refers to a condition where people experience intense feelings of inadequacy or deficiency after comparing themselves with someone; and their confidence subsequently dropping as a result. That complex can drive people to gossip against a victim as a way of combating their feelings of inferiority, by publicising rumours aimed at making those mongers appear of higher status or importance than the victim; and to make their presence felt.

Coming to my personal encounter with the bad rumour about us, it is highly probable that our findings from the mystery shopping visit could have made the official appear inferior before his supervisor, members of the management team and peers, pushing him to invent the rumour. Similarly, our rejection of the stakeholder’s proposal for partnership could have made the prospective partner feel inferior thence conjuring up the rumour. The duo could have dreamt that by composing a rumour that would make us ‘cry for their mercy’, they would appear indispensably important to us.

In the case of Nehemiah’s narrative, I would like to infer that any inferior feelings that Sanballat, Tobiah and their cohorts had, were not directly against Nehemiah but against the Israelites as a whole, given their rich history of always being exemplarily ‘on top’ of the pile. As already indicated above, the rebuilding of the wall was considered a threat to neighbours; and since Nehemiah was in the lead, targeting him and weakening the builders through negative rumours was the fastest way to stop the project.

At JuaLink, you may have noticed that onboarding Faraja made Lulu feel inferior. Indeed, it was that ‘complex’ that prompted the publicity officer to circulate bad rumours about the new manager, in an effort to appear better in the eyes of workmates. Little did Lulu know that she really did not have to assert herself through putting others down, since God would never regard her, or anyone for that matter, as inferior (Romans 2:11).