I am writing today about compensation culture as I listened to my friend Nick Ferrari talking about it on LBC this morning.
We, (in the West), are getting to the stage where we think that there has to be a reason for everything and that, if something goes wrong, someone must be to blame, and so someone should pay. Well I'm telling you folks it just ain't true. Sometimes things happen and they are just accidents. And sometimes human beings make mistakes as anyone can, and should be forgiven. Believe me a life spent trying to get even, for the perceived, or even real times you have been unjustly hurt just isn't worth it. I can say this because I have been there and it doesn't take you anywhere you really want to go. You will become trapped in your own prison of darkness and it will be a prison of your own making. Yes, your own making.
That isn't to say that was done to you was just: maybe it wasn't. And that isn't to say where there is injustice you shouldn't fight it: you should. But compensation culture is about blame. It is about asking what can I get.
If you really want to feel empowered about righting a wrong done to you ask instead: what can I do? What can I do to make sure this doesn't happen again to anyone else? That's real power and real justice.
And treat yourself kindly. Whatever you needed to do to survive was what you had to do at the time. It doesn't matter if other people condemn you because you took drugs or whatever: they weren't walking in your shoes. And if they did who is to say that they would not have handled it worse that you did? So be kind to yourself.
Or course if you did real wrong to others it is up to you to sort that out and not blame your parents/society/etc. delete as appropriate.
And remember the best revenge is living well in a healthy and productive way.
I'll leave you with this poem
William Ernest Henley. 1849-1903
Invictus
OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
This poem was written by the author when he was in hospital. He suffered tuberculosis of the bone and has a leg amputated.
So with whatever is going on in your life, let us not descend into hatred or bitterness. And especially this so in the light of the London bombings.
Let us show in our lives that we are bigger than their, (the terrorists), hatred.
I am happy to report that in my neighbourhood in London there is still racial harmony. In fact my next door neighbour, my GP and my pharmacist are all Muslims and we are still getting on as normal. So the terrorists did not win after all.
My best wishes to you all and thanks to all of you who have contacted me with your kind comments about my blog.
Blessed be,
