## Core Concept Unchecked personal suffering follows a predictable degenerative pathway: suffering, then bitterness, then resentment, then vengeance, then pathological destruction. Each stage seems justified from inside it, which is what makes the slide hard to interrupt. ## The Cain Pattern The biblical Cain is the archetype: his offerings rejected, he turns not to self-correction but to hostile resentment, then targets the successful (Abel) and the social contract itself out of nihilistic contempt. Resentment's endpoint is contempt for being as such. ## Cross-Domain - **Psychology**: the affective cascade from injury to vengeance. - **Ethics**: resentment as the seedbed of malevolence, not a neutral grievance. - **Organizational behavior**: unaddressed grievance metastasizing into sabotage. --- *Source: [[Embrace Your Mistakes and Keep Moving Forward]] — Jordan Peterson lecture*