>stack the deck against them

The question is: how should one react to learning that life is unfair and full of adversity against them?

Perhaps the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass could serve as a good example?

I wonder if Douglass had just remained hopeless, blamed others, and waited on the government to fix his problems, instead of learning to read, educating himself, and becoming resolutely determined to gain freedom, would we even be talking about him right now?

Surely Douglass was delt far worse cards than most american's complaining about the deck today.