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IPFS News Link • Self-Help: Rational Living

Learn How to Shift Blame? I don't think so...

• wendymcelroy.com by Wendy McElroy

This is not a statement of accepting defeat in the face of adversity. Quite the opposite. In order to assert whatever control you have over a situation, you need to grasp the hard cold edges of it without flinching. It is what it is. Someone has been unjust or cruel toward you? Why waste time in self-pity? Make sure to do whatever will prevent such an incident from happening again, including inflicting enough punishment on the unjust and on the cruel to act as a deterrent for them. If this is not possible, then move on. But don't lament your plight to the heavens. The heavens don't care; and, if they do listen, they will not respect anyone who fails to act on her own behalf.

Today's aphorism from Gracian is one with which I disagree...but I have learned through the disagreement: 149. Learn How to Shift Blame to Others.

To have a shield against ill-will is a great piece of skill in a ruler. It is not the resort of incapacity, as ill-wishers imagine, but is due to the higher policy of having some one to receive the censure of the disaffected and the punishment of universal detestation. Everything cannot turn out well, nor can every one be satisfied: it is well therefore, even at the
cost of our pride, to have such a scapegoat, such a target for unlucky undertakings.


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