How do you cope with it, intellectually?
I tell myself that there are two clashing worldviews. There is my view, that a human being is in charge of his or her own life and, with sustained focus, can reach higher and higher achievement every week, gradually approaching (and maybe one day reaching!) a virtuous, peaceful, and happy life.
The other view is more of a victim mentality: that life happens to you, that infinite frustration and suffering are unavoidable, that the only reasonable way of coping with such an awful world is to attack whoever seems to actually enjoy life — because surely they are dishonest or crazy and must be brought back down to Earth.
Those with the second worldview didn’t ‘get the memo’ that we live in a future where each person chooses which media he or she consumes, and if you actually don’t want to see/read/watch something, you simply see/read/watch something else. There are infinite channels and the clicker is in your hand. But recall that (in my mind) these people reject the idea that an individual controls his or her own life.
