Victims

We need victims today like the Biblical Job tested by God or the Byzantine general Belisarius tried by Justinian in the 6th century. A victim today brings the troubles upon himself but blames the "times." Why must I read about excuses for "even the most financially-savvy consumer, an attorney, who finds himself with self-inflicted debt and credit issues? His new business venture and a divorce contribute to his troubles. The necessitated sale of his house is another component of misery. Yet with money tight, he tries to get a loan from a bank! What is his solution to finding himself in the pits where he can’t make "it" today? "It," of course, is the secret word requiring first definition and then dismissal. He taps into his retirement savings, incurs another loan and takes a taxable withdrawal. Adversity should be the handmaiden of achievement not the enabler of victimhood especially if the individual involved brings the adversity upon himself by rash judgment, lack of proper, prior planning, hedonism, fiscal irresponsibility, abandonment of self-righteousness and absence of common sense. Job and Belisarius merely suffered in both the figurative and literal senses. Americans today - Heaven forfend - find suffering too much trouble.