Lessons from the Electric Chair
“Under my coat is a weary heart, but a kind one — one that would do nobody any harm” — Francis Crowley, murderer
“Two-gun” Crowley claimed his notorious 1931 killing-spree was merely self-defense. He went to the electric chair, not blaming himself for anything.
This is human nature — We’re attacked. We get defensive. We push back.
It’s a survival tactic. We tell ourselves these little lies that hold our pride up — “I’m not wrong, he is”, etc. We do it so we don’t have to deal with the unsettling truth that we are not perfect. We are weak. We are selfish. And we are wrong in many instances.
But when we push back, we often make our counterpart more aggressive. This exacerbates the self-lying. And the cycle deepens — building more anger and resentment, leading to worse decisions.
Accept yourself and your faults with grace.
That’s the path to a happier life.
