I suppose for a very long time I've been trying to understand how it is that people might make sense out of their lives and make meaning and make their lives meaningful in the face of the trouble that life brings.
I happen to be a big fan of Western civilization; I think it beats the hell out of tyranny and starvation.
Assuming if there's such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?
Once someone has spent enough time cultivating bad habits and biding their time, they are much diminished. Much of what they could have been has dissipated.
If you don't stand your ground, then all that happens is people push you backwards.
A properly balanced story provides an equal representation of the negative and positive attributes of, I could say the world, but it's actually a being. 'Harry Potter''s a good example. So Harry's the hero, right. But he's tainted with evil. There's a dark and a light in every bit of that narrative. It's well balanced.