Thursday, March 24, 2011

BAD THINGS/GOOD PEOPLE: HEADS OR TAILS

The question has been asked, almost 'ad nauseum, WHY DO BAG THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE? Perhaps if we approach possible answers to this troubling observation many seem to share, from the viewpoint of gambling, games or pastime of chance, where people bet on the odds in an attempt to win something,many take on bets that have 'a high risk',we shall see something about this question few usually consider..... HOWEVER,without entering into a mazeof various pitfalls and confusing anecdotes about 'win-lose-break even' situations of all kinds, let us use the KISS METHOD: KEEP IT SIMPLE,STUPID! and since I am, at many times,if not most times, incredibly stupid, I think I can discuss this 'perplexing problem' that people wish answered or solved-the questions that causes me, but perhaps not others, about why 'bad things happen to good people'...... Take a coin or disc and call one side,bad(things) and the other side good(people) or just keep it 'heads' or 'tails' and begin flipping the coin in the usual way and have someone jot down the result of each flip,whether it comes up heads or comes up tails. If you go all day long with this activity it will get boring and here is where another element enters- aprize, a goal or whatever,and this means usually using the coin to determine the 'winner' in some type of contest or situation or in a tie where opponents-participants come up 'even-steven'. No matter the number of trials undertaken in this noteworthy endeavor, the tables of probability will show what to expect from this, if all other extraneous factors are eliminated as much as possible. To discuss what these extraneous factors are will take a lot of time and and will be done another time, ir at all, and really 'demo' nothing for the average mind.....which always raises objections to most everything... In LIFE the same chances of 'BAD THINGS' or 'bad events turning up for 'GOOD PEOPLE' will prevail. This does not mean exactly that 'good attracts good' or that 'bad is merely, as some philosophers have held, is the absence of good. IF NO GOOD, THEN BY DEFAULT THERE IS BAD! BUT we all sense somehow that even in the absence of 'bad', there may be no 'good'! When we say 'bad things' we mean bad events or happenings and not merely objects,such as a tree or a ball or a car.... We also mean 'good people' to be ordinary persons, like ourselves, for perish the thought we are bad or evil(it's always someone else, of course)! BY THE SAME TOKEN(COIN)(PUN INTENDED) 'GOOD' & 'BAD' THINGS HAPPEN TO 'BAD' PEOPLE,but we all think they go what they deserved, they all got their just desserts and needed some punishment for their ill deeds, AND, if they somehow got punished we immediately assume it a 'DIVINE ACT' by 'GOD' OR 'justice',when it is merely a mechanical operation. The dispension of any justice or revenge need not be immediate-I know, for I have seen it happen at times. LIKEWISE, when good things happen to good people, we assume they deserve such and are being rewarded for 'good deeds',for being 'good', for 'obeying orders' or 'Mommy' or 'Big Daddy" and the like. MORE ON THIS ANOTHER TIME.....

1 comment:

  1. We attribute to, or project on to, emotional feelings to events that need not have them or to justify them, especially when no one else shares or feels such emotions. If everyione around us feels the same way, and not necessarily things the same way, there seems to be a powerful motive for certain personal beliefs based on feelings. But usually despair is apt to be totally individual along with frustration and suicidal feelings...

    ReplyDelete