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So why don't you let yourself be carried out to sea and find out where it takes you? Swimming against the tide is clearly not working for you... no point in keeping it up. Out on the sea you might just find yourself a nice tropical island to be marooned on...

you might. Or you might find a rescue boat. Most likely however, you will drown as the human body is not meant to float at sea forever. Talk about giving yourself away to the circumstances!

Only if you want to believe that - it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The game isn't rigged for or against anyone.

Maybe, maybe not but some certainly have an easier time of it than others. Two people can put in the SAME EXACT amount of effort and take the same amount of responsibility. Yet one person can be a millionaire and the other might barely scrape by. Even if not rigged, the system certainly favored the millionaire.

That is your assumption. You just feel more comfortable thinking that.

I agree it's an assumption. Of course I don't know what it's like to be a starving peasant in Africa. I can imagine what it might be like, but that doesn't mean I can ever know. Same kind of thinking applies. I can't know what it's like to be you, and you can't know what it's like to be me. Best we can do is guess.

Who says they haven't? Just because they have a good life now, doesn't mean that it was always like that.

The problem is that by definition, a successful person can't know what it's like to be a life-long failure. They can fail a lot, but they eventually have success. Thus they don't know what it's like to never succeed.

The same can be said for those who categorically claim that their lives are just the product of pure chance and circumstance. They are so caught up playing the victim that they wouldn't see a solution if it was staring them in the face. That's the difference. If you accept responsibility, then your eyes are wide open to see what's around you; to see what in this world could possibly improve your situation.

Taking responsibility isn't about getting all you want.
It is about making the best of what you got.

I think you are misunderstanding my point. It's not an all or nothing deal. Some people play victim, and some people ARE victims. There is a difference. In fact, if you are a victim I'd say it's your responsibility to acknowledge it, so you can respond appropriately. If you are going to define taking responsibility "accepting reality for what it is", than I agree with you. That's not really what I'm talking about however. When I talk about "pr" as a religion I'm referring to people who make blanket judgments about everyone they see without considering the variables. They might see a bum and a millionaire and automatically assume that the millionaire is responsible, the bum not. But in reality the millionaire may have inherited their money while the bum is a vet who lost mental functioning in a war. You don't know what's going on beneath the surface of people's lives, which is why it's unhealthy to judge harshly. I'm not saying one shouldn't judge at all, but I think people, even the most pathetic and down and out deserve the benefit of the doubt. If somebody really is "playing victim", make sure they really are before you write them off as a loser. Even still, they may have their reasons that are beyond your comprehension. You aren't obligated to help them but at the least one can acknowledge that they simply don't have all the information needed to make an accurate judgment on their being.