V for...

Have you ever encountered people who are always lamenting that they are mired in debt or are always forced to make do with tough luck? I realised that I am constantly surrounded by people like this. What kind of people, you ask?

People who consciously make decisions to live in misery because they want attention and more importantly, validation. They want people to praise them for thriving so well even though they are stuck in a supposedly predetermined hellhole. They want people to gift them things voluntarily because they are so pitiful. They. Want. People.

More often than not, I tend to believe the narrative they paint. Because it seems a bit far-fetched that someone would go to great lengths to purposefully put themselves in compromising positions, and then claim that they are just so ill-fated, right? Well, WRONG. As William Shakespeare once said, "[a]ll the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players..."

So I wonder then... Why do people sabotage themselves? It seems so...sickening. I think the answer is... people romanticise the whole "victim narrative" because the victim is never accountable for all the unfortunate things that happen to them. They are always entitled to the benefit of doubt. They are always deserving of help. They are always given a free pass to complain and whine.

For example, some of these people with victim mentality will deliberately make unhealthy choices like overspending or hanging out with the wrong crowd. Then, boom! It's doom and gloom. Suddenly, they need a shoulder to cry on at 3am. Suddenly, they need a ton of money to tide through hard time. Suddenly, they need people to help them run their errands... all because they are so so so... pitiful and as human beings, we should have some empathy. But should we? All the time?

I know I will be the last person to answer that question. Because I always end up feeding that ego and allowing that fiend to latch onto me... But it is not helping them. It is destroying them.

And more importantly, it is destroying people like us who enable such self-destructive behaviour. So what is the solution? I don't think I have one except to implore people to love themselves more (not in a self-centred way) and not always assume the world owes them a living.

I guess V is for vacillating...