Unbridled Optimism

I see a lot of memes and quotes about how ‘everything happens for a reason’ or that ‘everything will work out for your benefit in the long run’.

I understand that it is necessary to try to keep people’s hopes up in the face of tragedy. I get a little ill when I read these things though. I see genocides, I see torture and brutality, I see rapes, I see murders, I see natural disasters. In time, many of the survivors will recover, at least somewhat.

Where is the long run benefit of a holocaust? How will a rape work out for your benefit in the long run? I read about senseless acts of violence and brutality which if they don’t kill the victims, will often scar them for life. How can those things ever be anything other than a tragedy?

I see things saying that the good people will be protected by G-d, or some other force, and that those doing evil will be punished. Yet I see those among the most innocent, including children and even babies, murdered and brutalized. I see people guilty of those things go without ever being punished. There seems to be no divine justice or divine protection on this earth. Are the brutalizers punished in the ‘next life’? I can’t say for sure that there even is a ‘next life’.

Yes, there are many things perceived as bad which may serve to teach people a lesson, or show people a better way forward in their lives. In some cases even tragedy may move people to do good or help others. The blanket “Little Mary Sunshine” stuff is utter crap in my opinion.

On a par with that is the old ‘what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger’ line. No, what doesn’t kill you may well cripple you. Lesser harms may well strengthen, and there will always be those individuals who rise above the most tragic circumstances. The ones who do, have my respect and admiration, but those people are and always will be the exceptions.