Harvey's downfall had roots that ran deep.
His parents divorced when he was a child. Because his mother had a history of drug abuse, the court awarded custody to his alcoholic father, but this proved to be no salvation for young Harvey.
Young Harvey's father was not only an alcoholic, but violent as well. After the divorce, he poured every negative emotion from his work and life onto his innocent, defenseless child. He came home drunk every time, and young Harvey would receive a vicious beating.
Cruelest of all, before each assault, his father tossed a coin, letting chance decide whether he would beat him-the numbered side meant a brief respite, while the head on the reverse meant an endless beating. His father called it fate's choice, perfectly "fair."
Young Harvey could only watch as that coin of fate fell, praying in terror that it would land numbered side up and spare him his father's violence-even just once.
But despairingly, fate never smiled on that poor child. Not once.
Every time the coin fell, it landed heads up.
This childhood ordeal of "random violence" left Harvey living in fear and at the mercy of fate's uncertainty from an early age. He could neither predict when the next hurt would come nor change the outcome through his own actions. All he could do was submit to this "random judgment without a shred of fairness." That fear made him paranoid and sensitive, and turned the coin into the most terrifying symbol of his childhood.
Until he discovered that "fairness" had never existed in the first place-the coin his father tossed was a misstruck coin he had collected especially, with the same head on both sides. No matter how many times it was tossed, there could only ever be one outcome.
Heads up.