It is such a troubling emotion which has plenty of appalling consequences and virtually no good ones. Like many states of mind that fall under the same category, resentment drains the resentful person and drives a wedge between him/her and the others. It is unclear to me how people end up resentful, but I have observed that it can be paralysing. Here I am trying to explore how a mind poisoned by resentment would look like from the inside.
 



It seems to me that it is related to the feeling of worthlessness. When we believe we are destined to succeed, and we do not, we may end up angry with the very dynamics of life. Then, we try to succeed in unconventional ways because we think the system is flawed, and if it is flawed, then why abide by the rules in the first place? We legitimise our tendency to violate social norms, which exist to regulate our interactions so we do not end up getting up in arms about every dispute. We may repeat the statement that life is absolutely worthless in every single chance we get, while still trying so hard to achieve that goal of ours. This is contradictory. It is because uttering the words is an indication of nothing. We may be saying that life is meaningless just to convince ourselves that it is ok to fail. However, it is not ok to shy away from the responsibility, and resentful people, definitely, evade responsibility. After all, failing at something is not their fault, they say. It is rather a flaw in the social structure.
 
More often than not, you would see resentful people react to the social happenings by showing signs of disgust. This is rather understandable. Believing the entire system is built on a discriminatory foundation that favoured others to them and left them with nothing but misery, should create that reaction. It is one of the many defence strategies our minds use in order to shield us from the disturbing reality. I believe that humans are capable of tolerating incalculable amounts of damage. Taking on the full responsibility of one's actions is of an ultimate necessity. Because what else can we do? Say the reason for our failure is a result of a deficiency rooted in the manner in which the world around us is arranged. What next? Are we going to fix that?!
 
Good luck to whoever wants to take a shot at it. However, for me (and I am sure many agree), it seems much easier to go inward than to put it in the hands of the world. Because blaming the social structure is just another way of claiming that our failures are impossible to mitigate. Being resentful is, in my opinion, one of the worst mindsets you can possibly adopt. It hurts really bad to feel helpless in the face of your own adversity. You know deep down that a certain set of decisions got you to where you are now, but the feeling that came along with the outcome was so painful that it was virtually impossible to admit that it was all because of you; you do not want to add regret to your collection of pains.