Alain De Botton

And every time I leave the house, it looks sunny.

But then every time I've spent five minutes walking down the road, it starts to rain and I get completely drenched and I've forgotten my umbrella.

By the third time this happens, I start to feel the world's getting at me.

Right.

I feel like I'm being victimized by the weather.

Right.

Or I go into a restaurant and I say, can I have a nice table?

And they go, yeah, over there.

And you realize the table's wobbly and there's a strange smell and they've given you the worst table.

And you think I'm being victimized in a pizza restaurant or whatever it is.

So it's quite possible to feel that you're being got at by the world.

Often it has to do with a deep sense that you're unworthy and that you're not a good person.

The more you feel, I'm not good, there's something wrong with me, the more you'll constantly be reading insult everywhere.

Everyone's laughing at me.

Yes.

People are getting at me, et cetera.

So, again, huge compassion.

This comes from not really having been seen, loved, honored, et cetera.

And then you make it worse for yourself because you're permanently seeing yourself as a good –

fitting, plausible candidate for victimization, and then you feel victimized by things that go wrong.