There is a certain kind of person who spends a lot of time explaining to others that we need to be resilient and control ourselves, and that person is often someone who has spent a lot of time causing harm. Regardless of how people have managed to maintain their lives, this person believes that more restraint could always be mustered. Often, this person is the one who tries to “understand” cruelty rather than address it, and that is always the advice given to people enduring under the maniacs of the world. We are now witnessing the results of spending way too much time hoping that people “do better.”
Hope is not really about the outcome, but about faith that something will happen that people will understand or will help others. That misguided notion often leaves people to wait longer than we should or project behavior that “sees the best in people.” Meanwhile, the offender goes around behaving as if there will always be a do-over, and that anyone holding them accountable is just “being mean.” This is why I put such an emphasis on sycophants, basically the ones to keep people holding on instead of accepting that some cruel people are simply cruel, and not worth either the energy to defend against or the placating education that some, including me, used to offer.
Entitlement never forms in a vacuum, and one of the most appropriate ways of ending such behavior is acknowledging that people genuinely believe that they can do no wrong. Rather than spend all day wondering about the motivations of others, we all need to spend more time evaluating what people say and do, and the comparisons between words and actions. “Good” and “just” people never need to spend all day and half the night advocating for their words and actions, and the rise in justification is proof that people knew they were wrong, and refused to do better. Now is the time for the takers and abusers to learn that actions have consequences because nothing else will teach those determined to force everyone else to turn a blind spot to who and what they are.
