KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY AVOIDING THE ALLURE OF VICTIMHOOD
One of the most harmful ways of thinking of ourselves is as a victim. It can make it nearly impossible to find success, financially or otherwise, and undermines our capacity for relationships.
Yet this mindset is not uncommon, we’ve probably all experienced it to some degree. But for some it can create a more pervasive atmosphere in their lives.
As researchers Rahav Gabay and his colleagues have shown, this mindset has four specific qualities, that lead to three specific biases and one onerous tendency, that can skew our view of the world.
Today we’ll look at how to move away from this kind of mindset, and re-orient toward taking effective, positive action. We start with understanding that changing a victim mindset is much more complicated than the kind of “get over it” advice that’s so common – and useless.
A CUP OF YAK BUTTER TEA IN A TIBETAN NOMAD TENT
At 14,000 feet, Tibetan nomads called Drogpa set their summer encampment for their yak herds to graze on green pastures. You find them with difficulty in the remote Himalayan highlands of the Kingdom of Lo. They are happy to welcome you into their home, a single large tent of black yak wool, and serve you a cup of delicious yak butter tea.
It is a rare privilege to be with these people and experience their ancient way of life. It is something we strive to do on our Himalaya Helicopter Expeditions. I took this picture in May. Here is their home from the outside. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #203 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
GOP HINDENBURG
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/06/23
Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am sending this first HFR of 2023 to you from the capital of Argentina at the start of our Patagonia Wonderland exploration with your fellow TTPers.
It’s an unbeatable way to start a new year: with an unforgettable adventure in an extraordinary part of the world far away from home. Particularly now – for it’s a great way to say goodbye and good riddance to the rubbish year of 2022. Into the trash can of history it goes.
That’s a very full trash can. In November, America – Dem cheating making the difference on the margin notwithstanding – voted for more crime, more CRT, more forced child tranny change, more inflation, more woke lunacy, more corruption, the list of nightmares goes on. It's a patient dying of a terminal disease who doesn't want to be cured, who wants to die instead.
So what’s in store for us and the world in 2023? We’re going to start with who will be the biggest Winners and Losers of 2023, then identify the fundamental key to whether a country will flourish and prosper, or decline and suicide itself. That most certainly applies to the USA. And yes, all this involves the three books above.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – THE MAN-EATER OF DALAT
Dalat, South Viet Nam, 1961. I was 17 years old. A friend of my father’s, Herb Klein, came by our house. He was a prominent businessman whose passion was big-game hunting. He had just returned from the mountain jungle highlands of South Viet Nam and regaled us with stories of the Montagnard tribespeople who were plagued by tigers with a taste for human flesh. He told me that after climbing the Matterhorn, living with Amazon headhunters, and swimming the Hellespont, hunting a man-eating tiger should be my next adventure.
“You’d be saving so many lives, Jack,” he told me. “There’s one I heard about from the Co Ho Montagnards that’s killed and eaten almost 20 of them in the forests outside the town of Dalat. I know who can guide you, he was mine, his name is Ngo Van Chi.”
Somehow, I talked my parents into letting me do this. I had saved up the money from giving tennis and judo lessons. So there I was, in pitch dark in a “mirador” of branches and leaves, holding a .300 Weatherby with a flashlight wired to the barrel, waiting for this man-eating tiger to come for the rotting water buffalo we set out as bait. Chi and I heard the tiger, I put the rifle barrel out, Chi clicked on the flashlight, I saw these two enormous red eyes, and fired.
And there he is, the Man-Eater of Dalat, who would never kill another human being ever again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #175 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 01/05/23
The Search for Integrity
Over the past decade or two, the government became the home to an ancient evil; Neo-Platonism or Post Modernism is the belief that a cadre of elites should lead the great unwashed. Their tool is the Noble Lie, the grand narrative meant to grab people by their emotions and compel them to do the elite’s bidding.
Well, on today’s links, we find the Nobel Lie unfolding in all directions. From the fight to find an honest Speaker of the House to the manipulation during Covid, the ESG agenda, and the great migration of Americans in the era of Woke, the truth is coming out.
The economics are ugly as continued inflation appears baked in the cake.
Everywhere, people are waking up to the stone-cold reality that our government manipulated the truth about nearly everything, and they did it in the financial interest of our elites.
Revolutions have occurred over less, and the free fall of trust in government is accelerating.
What institutions are left to trust? Not schools, not churches, not even the Post Office. We can’t even trust that a woman is not a man in drag.
The question is this: Are we nearing the bottom? Is it time to rebuild integrity, and can it even be done?
Please join us at Skye’s Links, and let’s discuss it.
HEAVEN IN THE CARIBBEAN
Quick – name the only country in the world named after a woman. It’s the island nation in the Caribbean of St. Lucia, named after the patron saint of virgins, 4th century Saint Lucia.
The charm, beauty, and serenity of St. Lucia are unequaled in the Caribbean. Here you can have your own private retreat overlooking the twin peaks of The Pitons. The St. Lucian people take great pride in the immaculate spotlessness of their island and in their matchless reputation for personal warmth and hospitality.
While an English-speaking country and member of the British Commonwealth, there is a French tradition here as well, reflected in the fine cuisine and wines in restaurants. Yet I became fond of the local Piton beer as well. St. Lucia is the easiest island in the Caribbean to fall in love with – so it is no wonder that couples come from all over the world to get married or honeymoon here.
If you want to spend a few days of bliss away from all the cares of the world, you can’t do better than this place of heaven in the Caribbean. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #190 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FLOWER HIGHWAYS, FLOWER TRAILS
For miles and miles, the roads in the Azores Islands are lined with flowers on both sides. Even the foot paths and trails are strewn with flowers.
As you know, I’ve been to every country in the world. I know of no place on earth more beautiful, more flower strewn, more peaceful, serene, and safe than Portugal’s island paradises of Madeira and the Azores in the Atlantic.
So plan on joining me, Rebel, and your fellow TTPers on our exploration of Atlantic Paradises, June 17 to 25. Make this beauty and serenity a part of your life. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #196 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
DAMAR HAMLIN’S “HEART ATTACK”
What everybody who was watching the game witnessed on Monday (1/02) was Mr. Hamlin taking what looked like an ordinary hit to the chest. He and the other player both hit the ground, they both stood up, and then Hamlin collapsed in an instant.
He received at least nine minutes of CPR on the field before an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital, where he is still in critical condition.
Mr. Hamlin’s collapse was not caused by what most people think of as a “heart attack” – it was something else.
ONCE AGAIN!! CHINA’S COVID LIES COULD PROVE DEADLY FOR AMERICA
The only thing not going viral in China is the truth. Chinese officials are spewing lies to cover up the massive COVID carnage there.
Worse, US public-health officials dawdled for a week, allowing air travelers from China in without testing, while other countries immediately blocked infected travelers from entering.
Aerial photos and videos from China show body bags stacked outside hospitals and crematoria, funeral-home parking lots full and hospitals overwhelmed with COVID patients jammed into hallways. In Beijing and Sichuan, more than 50% of the population is infected, according to internal government documents.
More dangerous, China is also withholding laboratory evidence about what strains are sickening its population. Why do that unless they want to infect the world once more?