Removing the Negativity

I used to read a blog series by a really smart person. He is also a very good writer. In fact, his writing is what hooked me, and the topics he writes about are interesting to me. If I were to generalize, this writer writes about the human condition, things like economic systems, government systems, the behavior of companies and big corporations, philosophy, and religion.

I read a good deal of his writing. Over time, I noticed something: He is extremely negative, disguising it as caring and concern. It is easy to point out the ugly parts of the human condition.

• It’s easy to find problems with economic systems, especially when the results under the system are distributed unequally.
• There is nothing easier than criticizing the ineptitude of government and a system that often seems at war with itself. In fact, I think criticizing the government, a right I vigorously support, is a national past time.
• Companies and big corporations are full of human beings, and because this is true, there are infinite ways for them to make mistakes, to act poorly, and to trade purpose for profitability. Some companies sometime do harm, because sometimes humans do.

Over time, I stopped reading this writer. I don’t recognize this dystopian world this writer sees. The economic system we are part of is horribly imperfect, but still the only way that people have been lifted out of poverty in great numbers. Our democratic Republic is still strong, and despite our many and serious differences, the Great Experiment stands strong, regardless of politics and politicians. There is still more opportunity available to those who would seek it, even if it is more difficult for some than others.

The world I see is full of basically good and infinitely fallible human beings doing their best, repeating mistakes that should have long ago been learned, and muddling through. In sum total, the good in most of us outweighs the bad in the few of us who are really bad by a margin so great as to defy measurement. Given enough time, we find ways to solve the greatest of challenges, and in doing so, create even greater ones.

People get married. Babies are born. Promotions are had. And life is lived, longer than ever, safer than before, and with more abundance than could be imagined by those who came before us. Some of life feels like Summer, and some feels like Winter, but then, that’s going to be true for a long time to come.

I no longer read the smart writer. The world looks very much like what you believe it looks like.