When we think of tragedy, we think of loss. It could be losing someone important, something important, or even yourself. However, what if tragedy as a device was used to make a point? Today in class, we watched a Ted Talk about success and failure and one of the things he said that really stuck out to me was that he said something along the lines of "Hamlet was not a loser, but he lost.". This is what tragedy shows us. Labeling people as losers is unfair because there are so many variables in life that until we know their complete story, we can't make any judgments about their merit. Hamlet lost many things in the story, but that certainly doesn't make him a loser. When something tragic happens to you, you lost; but would you find it fair for someone to then call you a loser because of it?
Now obviously you'd never call someone a loser because one of their family members died (I hope), but it draws a good comparison. Calling someone a loser because they're poor or don't have nice possessions is not all that different from that. The man in the Ted Talk said many people are "Snobs". We make generalizations about people without knowing their complete story. There could be a million reasons someone is poor. We go so far as to call someone a loser based on their financial status. He also says the only reason people buy nice things is because they are afraid of what other people will think, which makes sense considering what I said earlier.
The Ted Talk also said that the fear of failure is the fear of ridicule. We feel that we will be judged by the public when we fail. This itself is a tragedy to me. I know i'm guilty of it, but it provides so many limitations. There's no argument society would be better off without it.