The big lie says that those who have been harmed by this world deserve special latitude when harming others―that those having been cheated deserve to cheat, and those having been lied to deserve to lie, and those having been betrayed deserve to betray others.
But the truth is that wrongdoing is wrong no matter who does it. And think about this: Who among us should know this better than the ones who have already had it done to them, and having suffered the hurt of it all? For the good man, his own misfortune should serve as a monument to the evils of wrongdoing everywhere, but for the bad man, his misfortune is his license to do as he pleases.
The bad man will lash out, even at the innocent, thinking that he deserves the latitude. But he does not deserve it, and he hasn’t thought it through. For the one thing, he loathes those who consider themselves entitled for this same cause to harm to him, yet here is he doing the same to others. And then there’s the fact that if they all continue doing this, it simply provides more of the same irrational excuse for yet others to join in. He’s making the world around him worse, and not better.
He has set the barre of expectation for his own life too low, and does not understand the need for people like him to stand up and do right. At the heart of the matter is the truth that not everyone can accept: This man wants to hurt others. He’s not looking for an excuse to get out of this hurtful way of life, but for one to stay in it. And what better excuse than the notion that none of this is his fault, really?
And look how our culture has bought into that excuse! It’s as if it were being promoted on purpose, to ruin us all deliberately!
The only honest, rational, and responsible way out of this cycle is to hold everyone accountable, all the time, for how he treats others, whether he is himself suffering or not. Good people can see the reason in this. Bad people will not want to see it. We all need the courage to keep on doing the right thing, even when the wrong thing has been done to us. It is not a proper excuse to go over to the Dark Side.
