BAD LUCK

It is a psychological truism that whoever gets into difficulties with the absolute truth and logic of communal life, will sooner or later feel the repercussions. Often the individuals who make these profound mistakes do not learn from experience, but view their misfortune as an undeserved personal disaster. It takes them  their whole life to demonstrate what bad luck they have had, and prove that they have never succeeded in anything, because everything they have laid their hands upon has ended in failure. Such unfortunates tend even to be proud of their ill-luck, as though some supernatural power had caused it. Examine this point of view more closely and you will find that vanity is rearing its ugly head again! These people act as though some sinister deity is singling them out for persecution. In a thunderstorm they believe that the lightning will strike only them. They are afraid that burglars will choose their house. If any misfortune is to occur they are certain that they are the ones it will touch.

Only people who consider themselves the centre of the universe can exaggerate like this. It seems the opposite of selfishness to be constantly pursued by misfortune, but actually a stubborn vanity is at work when such individuals feel that all hostile powers are intent on wreaking vengeance upon them. They are the individuals whose childhood was embittered by a belief that they were the prey of robbers, murderers, ghosts and vampires, as though all these people and apparitions had nothing better to do with their time.

It is to be expected that their attitude will be expressed in their outward bearing. They walk as though under pressure, bent over so that no one can mistake the heavy load under which they labour. They remind us of those caryatids who supported the Greek temples and spent their existence holding up porticos. These people tend to take everything so seriously and judge everything so pessimistically, that it is not hard to understand why things often go wrong for them. They are persecuted by bad luck because they embitter not only their own lives but also those of others. Vanity is at the root of their misfortune. Being especially unlucky is one way of feeling important!