What Impact do my Beliefs have on the Quality of my Life? (Part 1) #4
On May 7, 1931, New York City witnessed a sensational manhunt. After weeks of searching, “Two-Gun” Crowley, the man with two guns, the murderer, the gangster who neither smoked nor drank, was tracked down in his beautiful apartment on West End Avenue. One hundred and fifty policemen besieged him in his hiding place on the top floor of the building. Drilling holes in the roof, they tried to tear it out with tear gas. Then they aimed their rifles at the surrounding buildings, and for over an hour, this elegant New York City neighborhood resounds with the sound of gunfire. Protected by a big padded chair, Crowley was shooting at the police all the time. Ten thousand people were excitedly watching the battle.
We’d never seen anything like it on the streets of New York. After capturing him, Police Chief Mulrooney said, “This man is one of the most dangerous criminals I have ever known. He kills for nothing. “But him, Crowley, what did he think of himself? As the shooting raged around him, he wrote a letter to those who would find his body. The blood dripping from his wounds made a red streak on the paper. In that letter he said: “Under my jacket beats a weary but good heart that would not harm anyone. “Shortly before these events, Crowley was in the country near Long Island. Suddenly a police officer approached his stopped car and said, “Show me your license. “Without uttering a word, Crowley pulled out his revolver and pierced the unfortunate man with a hail of bullets. Then he jumped out of his seat, grabbed the policeman’s gun and fired another bullet into his inert body. Such was the murderer who declared: “Under my jacket beats a
weary heart, but good, and wouldn’t hurt anyone. “Crowley was sentenced to the electric chair. When he arrived at the execution chamber at Sing Sing Prison, you may think he said, “This is my punishment for killing. “No,” he exclaimed, “this is my punishment for trying to defend myself. “The moral of the story is that Two-Gun was not feeling guilty by any means.
Is that an extraordinary attitude in a criminal? If this is your opinion, listen to this “I spent the best years of my life giving pleasure and entertaining people, and what was my reward? Insults and the life of a hunted man! That’s Al Capone talking. Perfectly former public enemy number one, the most sinister gang leader who ever terrified Chicago, doesn’t condemn himself. He truly considers himself a public benefactor, a misunderstood benefactor, treated with ingratitude.
That’s what Dutch Schultz also said before he collapsed under the
bullets from the Newark gangsters. Dutch Schultz, one of New York City’s most notorious bandits, said in an interview with a reporter that he was a public benefactor. And he believed it. I have some very interesting letters from Mr. Lawes, warden of the famous Sing Sing Penitentiary. He assures that few criminals in Sing Sing consider themselves criminals. They judge each other
just as normal as other men. They reason, they explain. They’ll tell you why they had to break into a safe or pull the trigger. By logical or fallacious reasoning, most try to justify, even in their own eyes, their anti-social acts, and therefore declare their imprisonment to be absolutely unjust.
Seek first to understand
If AI Capone, “Two-Gun” Crowley, Dutch Schultz and all the other thugs under lock and key very often consider themselves innocent, then what do the people we meet every day, you and I, think of themselves? Even Adolph Hitler, one of the greatest bloodthirsty men this world has ever known, considered himself a messenger of God, whose mission was to restore the white race to its ultimate supremacy. Hearing this, one already wonders what God he was talking about, since God advocates equality among all His creatures.
We all meet people who do things we don’t understand, and we wonder if they do it on purpose. Even though it is true that some people do act really on purpose, some people do things that we will never do, just because they have different beliefs from ours. For example, a Christian will never understand why a Muslim can kill himself for a religious act, preaching that he will go to heaven. The Christian will not understand, because he knows that a suicide leads straight to hell.
The impact of our beliefs on our self-confidence
If you take a closer look at your life, you will realize that everything you do is influenced by your beliefs. Let’s take the example of animals: in the forest, the lion is not the tallest, the biggest, the smartest, or even the strongest animal — but what makes him the king of the animals? What makes the other animals respect the lion so much is the fact that the lion believes that he is the king of the animals, and this can be seen in his attitude: when a lion meets an elephant, he believes that he can eat it, and therefore he has a threatening attitude. On the other hand, the elephant rather believes that it can be eaten by the lion, and therefore he is afraid, and this affects his attitude. If an elephant really had to fight a lion, do you think the lion would win? The elephant is heavier, slimmer, smarter, and has a better memory than the lion, but since he does not believe in himself, he will be beaten by the lion.
“Beliefs are so powerful, they can make an elephant act like a sheep in front of a lion.” Dr. Myles Munroe
How many people do you know who have great abilities, who are talented, but lack self-confidence and who end up getting less out of life than they really can, just because there are things they don’t even try to do, due to their lack of self-confidence?
When we see people acting in ways that astonish us, before judging them, let’s first try to understand what makes them act that way — you may be surprised to discover that they act that way because they think they are doing the right thing. I am not encouraging their actions, but I just want us to understand that to help someone understand that what they are doing is wrong, we must first understand what drives them to act as they are doing now.
If reading the stories on this blog allows you to regain or add to the confidence you already have in yourself — or to allow yourself to be able to help people around you understand that some of the things they do are wrong, and help them move forward — we will have achieved our goal.
Thank you for reading me :-)
Resources
Chapter 1 of the book How to Win Friends, and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
