Absolutely! Truer words were never spoken. What's more important, though...how do they behave toward the people who disagree with them?

"Eventually the cat will realize the futility and stop digging."

Well, yeah, you'd think so...but not always. My mother kept right on with her habitual forms of futility and self-defeating behaviour right to the moment of her death. Refused medical assistance. Refused home care assistance. Was generally completely obstructive, and in a way that didn't help her one bit, but cost her dearly. But....she DID get her way!

Olddude, you are not alone.

(Amos does have a valid point, though.) The main reason my mother behaved as she did, I think, was that she was deeply insecure about herself...living in fear...and that caused her to act quite irrationally. Compassion and forgiveness is probably the best way to deal with a person like that, because you won't change them by fighting with them about it, that's for sure. They just get more fearful if you do.

Given that, it wasn't easy. She passed away last November, and the last year was very tough indeed.