Some people use self-pity as a psychological defense against success — preventing you from trying in the first place. Do you know someone whose crippling self-pity is just a self-protective way to avoid doing what you’re called to do?
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Video below hosted at Rumble.
15 replies on “Poor Poor Pitiful Me: Is Paralyzing Self-Pity Just a Self-Protective Way to Avoid Success?”
I am really loving the Virtue Signal. I love that you talk about what is meaningful, and you go “there”, the place on the liberal/fascist/woke map that reads “here be monsters/racists/__________”.
While listening, I notice that you both, Bill and Zo, often refer to Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass. Do you plan to do a study of these two men? I know them, but I know nothing about them. They seem to be instrumental in toppling the narrative of victimhood/oppression/self-pity.
It would be great to start a discussion about them! Thanks again all for giving me hope through these challenging times.
If you are really interested in these men, why not try the public library? There are so many things written by them or about them that it should be worth the time. Bill spoke about Booker’s need for bricks to build his school and he built a kiln and made his own. Pretty soon people were lined up wanting to buy them because they were the best around! I think it was in a SFL.
“I can’t do it, I have a bad back….”
Been there, done that. I have an old Navy injury that blessed me with 2 herniated discs that frame the belt line top and bottom. That was 35 years ago, and in the interim I have added arthritis to the mix. So yeah, there are a few things I dare not try to do anymore, and several more that I consider carefully before doing it.
The difference is that even in the case of having a reason many would consider legitimate, my own take on it gets less sympathetic as I grow older instead of more.
Why don’t I do _____, or have _____? Simple. I didn’t want it bad enough. If I did, I’d take the pain.
I have recently seen a billboard for the Paralyzed Veterans of America. It shows a woman in a wheelchair, if I remember correctly holding a basketball. Other than that and “PVA.org” in small letters in one corner, the only other thing on the billboard is 3 words:
What’s stopping you?
Given that example…. well, I still limit how much I’m willing to do, yes. But make no mistake, the reason is because I’m not willing to take the pain like the awesome lady on that billboard.
I’ll close this comment with the most useful thing the military ever taught me, something I heard time and again until I was sick of it, and yet I’m thankful for it now.
Nobody wants to hear your excuses, they want to see results. Make it happen.
Superb! You guys continue to excel. And I love Zo’s descriptor for “race”. I will remember that one!
This (Cracka) may be designed to give the current “PoC” points to reference, “Hey look what the whities did to us back then” , because the current PoC have very few actual incidents that they have experienced to reference. i.e. Take the PoC so abused US Military pilot who just wasn’t happy, doing the most sought after job in the US Military. As our illustrious leader says, “Come on man!!” So this gives them something to point to and feel abused.
Great post. To oversimplify my own personal happiness, when I stopped being a self pitying a**hole over everything that hadn’t gone my way & learned to play with the cards that life had dealt me my life got infinitely better
“There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day; we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life.”― Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms
Unfortunate that Scott cut Bill off (around the 11:30 point) when Bill was headed towards saying we had almost turned the corner on healing racism (and then Scott introduced an idea about extremism in portrayals as part of what “art” does.) Not sure Bill’s point raises to the level of tragedy, but an awful lot of rioting and damage might have been avoided if the healing was allowed to continue rather than tearing at the remaining wound.
Thinking along that line a little more, I believe that “art” is more successful as “art” when it is subtle rather than blatant. Forcing you to think about something not just in a new way but a deeper way, finding perspectives and perceptions that were not there previously. That may just be me.
But we might also note that today films need to be more action oriented as part of what that medium is best suited to show. Portrayals of conflicts like Sophie’s Choice (or most of Shakespeare’s plays for that matter) take too long to set up, and in our internet world we are very easily bored (I know I am, all too often). But I am now bored even by action flicks with CGI effects and backgrounding, let alone a story that does not have a “grabber” within the first 3 to 5 minutes. It is probably really a question of how best to spend whatever time is still left to me, as “time waits for no man”.
Oh, and where is the link to the Cracka’ trailer? Only on the Rumble site?
The spoiled children will continue to riot whenever they don’t get what they want. Reparations, Jury decisions or anything of the moment.
Great discussion, gentlemen.
There are people in the world who have been dealt truly a terrible hand. There are many more who just want someone else to blame.
I suspect many of us at one time or another fall into the second trap. But as with many aspects of life, it is how you overcome those times that truly define you.
Regarding the first part…Sometimes brain disorders in children caused by Democrats in 1979, by putting the governments grubby hands into our public school systems, are actual reasons some people fail to succeed in this world. Sometimes God uses those things to make a success story from. He did it for me anyway. LOL
While I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do in life, I did what was in His Will…and He knows best. My story should be made into a movie. It’s not a pity story at all, no, it’s an extremely inspiring story. It has at least one verifiable miracle even.
Excellent fleshing out of the corrosive effects of self-pity. It is a condition that weakens the soul and sucks all the joy out of life unless one derives happiness from the sympathy of others. But then, the downward path is always the easiest. Congrats to you and Zo for another fine segment.
Wow! Another amazing segment. Thank you both. This was an excellent presentation on Good Friday, and I have to agree with Bill; I would love to hear Zo’s version of the Bible because he has so much to offer in the way of insight. I would have never thought of “race” as he explained it. Very profound and true.
I remember a movie from the late 50’s that had 2 convicts, one white and one black who hated each other, escape from the police while handcuffed together. I was just a boy and saw it with my parents, but showed that these 2 could wind up friends in the end. The movie was “The Defiant Ones” and starred Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier. Powerful movie, but I doubt it’s available today.
As a young boy it showed me how much hatred can become friendship just by talking to one another. The problem today is society is always trying to separate us rather than let us understand each other. This has to go both ways to work and there are those of us who won’t let that happen.
Just checked – while it’s on Netflix DVD, it’s not readily available with no availability ETA. The good news is that you can rent it for streaming for $4 on Vudu or the Roku Channel