Seems to me that Everything can be looked upon as good these days - and I mean every single little thing; even the extremely horrid things. I say this not out of spite or malace, but out of reflection of my own person lossages. More than likely it's a huge part of a being that makes this happens. Almost like a clause in the humanity contract that states "if you can't take at least one really, really crappy situation and turn it around by persepective, than you're not human." We've got this remarkably keen ability to do this and at times I know there are some of us who wish that either we could or that someone else could shut it off and level with what is actually going on. It's like those people who look at war as good because "it's an excellent way to conduct population control." And as much as I agree with this, it certainly does not overshadow the atrocities of an event. Like seriously here folks, is it always so god damned necessary to be so bubbly and happy all the bloody time? I'm aware that the above example was somewhat morbid and perhaps even cynical, but it was an example of how we do these kinds of things (though I really should have choosen a better example to be honest) And so no matter the experience, and no matter how close we are to the brink of death, self mutilation, pride degregation or even self pity, we always look at the crap hand we were just dealt by life (or fate if you will) and say the following phrase "oh, but it was a learning experience." I want to do a little test here, just on the side. I want whoever has said this before to raise your hand right now. Thank you. Now I want you to keep your hand up if at any of those times the situation was far worse than you would have liked yourself to have believed. Oh wow, what a surprise, everyone's hand is still up!! And in case you're wondering, that was total sarcasm there. So we've just established that we continually so this but still, still we can never figure out why we do it? Mind you, I am not the offical source on why or how humans react/ act the way they do, but from an objective, observatory POV, I can safetly say that I have little risk of skewwing the results. Now, the arguments presented are generally generalized, and to be honest, ythey do not appply to those of us going through any depressive, manic depressive or other forms of mental illness (though they can.) Assuming you do not wish to read any further I'll put it to you plain and simple: we need to. It's not a matter of wanting to of feeling the need to - we absolutely require it, for I am convinced that if we did not do this, many of us would not be here today; myself included. So here's how it works, or at least one theory. The earth, the plants, animals and ourselves, we need light (from the sun) in order for our bodies to operate. In complete darkenss the earth would be quite colder, the plants would cease to exist and due to this, our physical being would not work or even exist. Now the sun, though highly underpraised, is actually a key element in our mental healthiness. I'm dead serious. Ever notice that people from certain countries do a lot of drinking - regularly and that (by no mere coincidence) it weather in most, if not all of those places are quite gloomy? Just think about it for a moment. I dare not name any names, but there are certain countries that have drinking as a great past time, in fact - they go there after every day of work. Oh yea, you know who I'm tlaking about. You see, the lack of sunglight/ brightness does effect our mind. Lack of light = lack of brightness = mood changes = lack of brightness in the thoughts = lack of happiness all over. It's only logical. Now, by taking this example and placing it upon the topic of current interest, we can see that w/o a lack of brightness of the thoughts leads to lack of happiness. Now, erase the steps behind it because here's what I'll do. I'll replace the sunlight thing with just pessimism. Pessimism = lack of brightness in the thoughts = lack of happiness all over. See where I'm taking this now? Regardless of what you insert, if you some how end up coming to "lack of brightness in the thoughts" you're, in a nutshell, screwed. Just that simple. We may not realize it, but obviously there's something within us that tells us that if we get too hard on ourselves or if we start going down that path, the likelyhood of happiness will be obsolete and so pessimism is avoided. But here's the catch 22, we avoid pessimism due to the fact that it leads to, what we call, negativity so what we sometimes do is take a realistic observation of a bad situation and ignore it. Because if it's presented we'll be seen as pessimists. So instead, we take a pessimistic situation and apply some form of sunshiny obviousness to it to make ourselves feel better. So we say things like "it was a learning experience" or "at least I'll know for next time" in an attempt to make ourselves feel better for messing up or for getting caught in someone's ploy. Now, this can be good for those of you who are currently depressed, and more power to ya - honestly I hope that you can fix that. But the whole thing of stetching the... correction, lying to oneself by altering the perception of a just plain bad situation and convincing ourselves that something good can be seen in it just doesn't work for me w/o further analysis. But there's a slight flaw in the thinking. Now, of course when dealing with humans, there is never one total truth for, we, in ourselves are not perfect, thus there is no one set equation to figure us out other than "one sperm and one egg = 1 human" So the quesiton is why do we not apply this logic to every situation we encounter? Why do most of us look upon certain things as only "horrendous"? Well, here's why. Remember earlier how I stated " Because if it's presented we'll be seen as pessimists." Well, that's your reason ladies and germs. And it's not always being seen as pessimistic. It could be that we'd be seen as corrupt, morbid, cynical, heartless, ruthless - anything that's been deemed bad if we see things differently than what we've been told. Because like it or not we are only allowed to be an individual as long as we conform to the masses. sure you can change your clothes, your hair, wear no bra etc... but ultimately you're not that different. Does that make you a poser? No. Does it make you just one of many? Yes. Now some would say "oh captain, that is such a negative view I think that..." well sorry sweetheart, but that's as good as it gets. Value your uniquness and value your "individuality" but what it boils down to is the fact that you are just one of many. Sure you're an individual to many people, but to most you're just another speck on the wall: not that different from everyone else. But noone would ever say it (even if they realized it) because, in addition to the above point, they're scared. Does that mean that I'm not scared, that I'm fearless and don't value my societally given uniquness? No, most definately not. Just means that... just means that right now things are a little different to me is all. But because we're so scared of losing our individuality (which is still connected to the masses, because you are one within many) we just take it as it's presented. And I'm not talking about the little shtuff that has absolutely no meaning - I'm talking about the big bad situations that everyone knows about and that every living person you can have contact with says and believes and would fight tooth and nail that it is a bad thing. So you agree - not conciously but you do because the thought, which none of us do anymore is "Well, this is a moral person, they believe that this is wrong and only wrong so it is wrong. I too am a moral person (or so you would like to believe) thus I must believe that this is wrong as well." Or you could flip it around. And so we have deductively and inductively concluded that this situation is wrong because by the "right" morals, it is wrong. Individuality is a great thing as long as you don't stand out like a sore thumb. And so we will forever continue through life, looking at most situations in a good way (even if we're wrong) and ignoring the optimism of a mortifying situation because it convieneintly fits into somes politcal agenda or because we long to be a moral and right character. Nobody wants to be the bad guy- hell, even the villians thought they were being heroic when they tried to destroy the world. So we continue on with this parody - this paradox of thinking... but maybe it's not a paradox as much as it is self serving; afterall, that is what we are ultimately designed to be. Realistically yours, -Captain B. Dark