This Brain Damaged Fool

“Compassion would be EASY for me, now. Only a HARD Man could beat this battered half-dead Fool.

•WOK•

•WOK•

•slump•

It’s a Hard World.

And it’s MY World.”

— Hal Jordan,

The Green Lantern

“In the aftermath of a losing battle, regardless of how aggressively a lobster has behaved, it becomes unwilling to fight further, even against another, previously defeated opponent. 

A vanquished competitor loses confidence, sometimes for days. Sometimes the defeat can have even more severe consequences. 

If a dominant lobster is badly defeated, its brain basically dissolves. Then it grows a new, subordinate’s brain—one more appropriate to its new, lowly position. 

Its original brain just isn’t sophisticated to manage the transformation from king to bottom dog without virtually complete dissolution and regrowth. 

Anyone who has experienced a painful transformation after a serious defeat in romance or career may feel some sense of kinship with the once successful crustacean.”