Good and Bad People

BY MICHAEL REISIG –

Oscar Wilde said, “It’s absurd to divide people into good and bad, mostly they are charming or tedious.” While I don’t necessarily believe that, I do understand it. But tedious is generally not dangerous, and today we seem bent on a strange, perilous course.

Nowadays it seems our government is not so interested in guiding the content, but appeasing the unhappy. It takes very little effort to govern good people, but it’s almost impossible to govern bad people, regardless of how much you appease them.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, ‘Wait on time.’” 

The problem with bad people is that they are often crazy as well – a crazy bad person is a dangerous thing, but when you have a society of crazy, bad people, that’s a tough situation. That’s when the walls of civilization begin to crumble. You see, you have to understand that civilization is not built on redefining borders alone. It’s built on compassion, self-control, and intellect.

Never before in the history of this country have we been so enamored by, so fascinated with “bad” – not necessarily evil, but useless, senseless, ego-motivated rapacity. I think it’s because we have allowed the “uninhibited” to grow into the “unconcerned,” which gradually morphed into an envy of those who succeed through effort, and a sort of hero worship for icons and idols who stumbled into fame without earning it.  Everyone wants to win the lottery, or “America’s Got Talent,” not find a job. We have become a living example of the quote by Woody Allen: “It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better, while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours more…”

I think what we have today, from the populace to the government, is the collision of high intelligence with low desires – extraordinary people with less than extraordinary integrity – self-righteous icons with the morals of weasels. While I don’t think this is entirely unique in the history of man, it’s definitely bad timing for the rest of us. What can we do about it? Not much, other than be true to ourselves and weather the storm. But I like these words from radio commentator Michael Josephson:

“In the natural order of the world, suffering is random. Bad things happen to good people just about as often as they do to bad people. We have not been given a shield protecting us from misfortune, but there is within all of us the strength to deal with misfortune, to overcome it and learn from it, so we can still find love, laughter and joy, despite it.”

About Author

Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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