Getting to know a person
It is said that you may dislike a person at first, but respect grows once you get to know them.
Thus do we learn to avoid conflict, and become skilled at turning fear into fondness. This is the basic survival mechanism of the ego which knows no other way to survive. Contact or interaction with an object of fear helps us to become used to it. We learn new mental tricks. With a greater understanding of the problem we become aware of its holes and the weaknesses in its substance. With familiarity the unknown becomes known, more predictable, and its power diminished.
Yet in my case, the better people know me, the more they hate me. When people first meet me they are not sure what to make of me. Being uncertain as to which category I belong to they slot me into a provisional category until they know me better. They may make of me an "idealist" with the possibility of finding me "insane" later on. Both categories are acceptable - as they conveniently sterilize me.
But the longer they know me, the less I fit, and the more of a threat I pose to them.
Then again, there are always the mules who are so lost within their dreams that it wouldn't matter how well they knew me. Such entrenched egotists create their own vision of me, and even my thunder does not rouse them from their sleep.