The Most Enraging Truth
My advice for all the people who are miserable about how opportunity has been lost in this country: Stop
Righteous rage feels amazing. You’ve been wronged, and now you’re mad. Deservedly mad. And you get to let it all out—blast that anger cannon and feel like the hero while you do it. It’s addictive. It’s also a trap.
Sure, it feels good in the moment. You get to unleash all that pent-up frustration, and for a little while, it’s satisfying. But here’s the problem: righteous rage is a dead end. It leaves you stuck.
I’ve seen a lot of anger lately, especially from younger people explaining how opportunity has been taken from them and that they have a right to be enraged. The dream of a steady job that gets you a house with a spouse and 2.1 kids is gone. I’ve seen so many arguments online where people insist things are worse despite whatever stats you throw at them. That financially, everyone is poorer. That it was simpler to succeed in the past. And that the reason things are so bad is capitalism or immigration or globalism or soulless pop music.
Are any of those complaints justified?
Well, for this discussion, it doesn’t matter. Because there is this one essential truth, which will probably make a lot of people angry (though that anger is definitely unjustified).
You get to choose whether or not to be happy.
Oh, I have made myself furious telling myself that.
“@#$% you, Frank! You don’t understand! Circumstances have happened to me! Circumstances out of my control! I have every justification for being miserable!”
“Okay, if you want to choose to be miserable…”
“I’m not choosing it! I told you! Circumstances!”
But no matter how much I rage against it, it’s true. You get to choose what you focus on.
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