A Pseudo-Shakespearean Rant

Thou ice-hearted harpy, incessantly prattling on, whose tongue drips with honeyed promises, then turns to fire with outward blame for all the world when confronted with those same promises broken: look now how you bluster and swagger, filled to overflowing with righteousness and self-aggrandizement. Your overabundance of faith in your own correctness leads you to reject the mere possibility of your fallibility. Your pride makes you reject accusation out of hand as a witch hunt, then you cannot even hear dissent through ears stopped with the hardened wax of ego.

But therein lies the issue. In this case, your inaccuracy lies plain for all to see. Assuming that everyone else thinks the way you do and that a situation will never happen merely because you cannot conceive of it leaves you blind and mockable when that same situation comes to pass, as it inevitably will. As it recently, in fact, has.

Ignorance is your failure and yours alone. Blaming the world for something you chose to do is not only counterproductive, but childish. You reject discussion and feedback, then you twist your work into the inbred parody of perceived brilliance which you believed you had brought to the table before - which you had thought to be your legacy. That self-same legacy which even now comes into question in light of your current tantrum.

Now I hear only the laughter of the masses. Your wax insulates you, and you take tone-deaf pride in accomplishing something which was not requested, does not work, and is not welcome as the loopholes expand and the count of critical issues mount. Fiddle on, Nero, fiddle on. The rest of us will keep warm somehow.

Cease thee and consider: If your position becomes increasingly solitary, are you the righteous defender against all odds, or are you the lone crank screaming obscenities at the congregation of rock doves in the square? I grant thee, telling the difference between the two lies at the core of a productive life, so as innocent as the question seems, it is not simple.

I believe the heart of this issue lies with you, sir. Contemplate that and consider how you may remove the report card comment "Does not play well with others." You may think you are right, and you may in fact be right, but you have slammed the door on hands extended in good faith. This one action will make all others that much harder in your days ahead.

And come not to me, sir, for sympathy. You have buttered your bread, and now is the time for you to lie in it. I have been in your position. I have apologized. I have groveled for forgiveness. I have worked to make things right. I have listened, and I have not silenced those raising the issue, as you continue to do.

Other paths can take you from the sting of your current hurt to feeling whole again. Your ego is a fabrication, and it will recover no matter how you feel in this moment. Know you that your current actions have strained your future credibility. Your apparent inability to take responsibility for your own decisions speak volumes of the person you have chosen to be through the thousand tiny decisions taken between moments.

Know you that a line exists between verbal self-defense and douchemongery.

I prithee, cross it not a second time.