A rather pathetic excuse, in my book.
It's a matter of asking yourself where you think the motive power is. Does the world happen to you, or do you happen to the world?
Some people think that they have relatively little control over their lives, where they go, and what they do. They feel that whatever attempts they make to determine their own fate are fairly ineffectual. They look all around them to find reasons for why they are where they are. Society, family, religion, race, are some of the things they blame their life on. Nothing is their fault; no one can blame them for anything.
On the flip side, we have people who believe that they have a lot of control over their lives, where they go, what they do. They feel that their own actions are what determine the course of their life. They look inwards to find reasons for why they are where they are. Choices they made, things they did, things they didn't do, are some of the things they attribute their life to. Everything is their responsibility in their life.
Whenever anyone says that they were forced to do something, or that they had no choice, or they wish they had done something different but they just couldn't, I hear 'The Devil made me do it.' Anyone with an ounce of self-confidence and pride would spit in the eye of the Devil and say 'Go to Hell!' Anything else is, in my book, an act of surrender to something you know is wrong. | 
