Western Mythology, Part Two: Brushfires and Smokescreens

"Where there's smoke there's fire" is another one. This often is used to justify attacking the victim in a situation, or, even more often, for mindlessly believing malicious gossip. In thousands of relationships, whether business, family, marriage..., one party decides to betray the other. In a business, that leaves an innocent victim not only emotionally devastated by the betrayal and financially bankrupt, but marked by every wagging tongue in the community with the smear of "corrupt business practices." In marriages, how many times has the betrayed been treated as as "equally to blame" with the traitor? A woman decides that one man is not enough, or even that she has some kind of vendetta against "men" and the man who has devoted his life to her good is one of "them." (Of course, some shoes do fit both feet.) In short, if this kind of thinking is valid, then every house fire victim should be locked up for arson, and every widow(er) for murder!