how low can you go?

I don't think many of my readers will really know what this is about (not me), but:

An American refuses to fail. No matter what happens, an American loses only when he labels it a failure (see the unshakable American belief in the power of words). When it comes to protecting a fragile ego, and bullying those around you into accepting your worldview, this works in your favor, but when it comes to gauging your life, and living your day to day, it can be a disaster.

To wit: imagine you slip a bit, and have a rough time of it for a while. If you don't accept the failure as a failure and move to set yourself right, the bottom creeps lower and lower. Eventually even the most horrible things that happen to you and happen by your hand become just the lower end of "acceptable", and the old "failure" looks impossibly naive.

I've always thought the pleasure principle and it's inevitable diminishing returns was the heart of evil in humanity, but looking at it turned on it's head, I suppose it's really there to keep us afloat.