I am reading a book written in 1938, before World War II, after the crisis of 1929 and it seems completely relevant to the situation I see today.
The book is "Outwitting the Devil, written by Napoleon Hill" it was published in 2011.
It is an interview with "the devil" and summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of humans and how to influence them for better or worse.
The list below is a listing the "devil" gives of things that are important. These things make him powerless over man or woman. Doing the opposite will allow "the devil" to influence humans.
1. Do your own thinking on all occasions.
The fact that human beings are given complete control over nothing save the power to think their own thoughts is laden with significance.
2. Decide definitely what you want from life; then create a plan for attaining it and be willing to sacrifice everything else, if necessary, rather than accept permanent defeat.
3. Analyze temporary defeat, no matter of what nature or cause, and extract from it the seed of an equivalent advantage.
4. Be willing to render useful service equivalent to the value of all material things you demand of life, and render the service first.
5. Recognize that your brain is a receiving set that can be attuned to receive communications from the universal storehouse of Infinite Intelligence, to help you transmute your desires into their physical equivalent.
6. Recognize that your greatest asset is time, the only thing except the power of thought which you own outright, and the one thing which can be shaped into whatever material things you want. Budget your time so none of it is wasted.
7. Recognize the truth that fear generally is a filler with which the Devil occupies the unused portion of your mind. It is only a state of mind which you can control by filling the space it occupies with faith in your ability to make life provide you with whatever you demand of it.
8. When you pray, do not beg! Demand what you want and insist upon getting exactly that, with no substitutes.
9. Recognize that life is a cruel taskmaster and that either you master it or it masters you. There is no half-way or compromising point. Never accept from life anything you do not want. If that which you do not want is temporarily forced upon you, you can refuse, in your own mind, to accept it and it will make way for the thing you do want.
10. Lastly, remember that your dominating thoughts attract, through a definite law of nature, by the shortest and most convenient route, their physical counterpart. Be careful what your thoughts dwell upon.
I suggest you find the book and read it, nothing new is happening, history repeats itself.
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