Well, firstly, I would change that ‘They’ into an emphatic ‘We’. Any observations that you make about humanity and ‘people’ include me; and you.
I read this question as:
‘What should you do when you are overwhelmed and when you are outside of the limits of what you can handle with equanimity, grace, and wisdom?’
In that situation, I feel that what threatens me the most are my own inferior and under-developed nature and tendencies.
Simplifying the question even more:
‘What should you do when you cannot be at your best?’
The unfortunate answer is also simple:
‘Less than your best.’
At this point, we’re just trying to find the least damaging option.
When I am in the grip of deep and intense insult, offense, affront, and anger…
When I feel powerless in the face of another person’s unacceptable (to me) choices and behaviors…
In that situation, the animal that should concern me the most is me.
Because those are the precise conditions in which we tend to abdicate our freedom.
Everyone loves to talk about free will; but in my opinion, the true tests of free will are your responses to painful conditions.
Are you free enough to forgive someone?
Are you free enough to not have to return in (supposed) kind every punch, every blow, every perceived offense?
And most of all, are you free enough that someone else’s choices cannot prompt you to easily sacrifice your own choices, your own dignity, your own Vision?
This is why we practice during good times, and why we seek out challenge during easy times.
When true challenges come, we often won’t have the luxury of being able to practice.
When I step in shit, my first immediate priority is not to punish the shit. It’s to find a water hose, and wash that shit off of my shoe.
My second mid-term priority is to pay close attention in order to reduce the likelihood of stepping in it again.
My third long-term priority is to arrange conditions (as best I can) so that the amount of it lying around to be accidentally stepped in is decreasing over time.
