Most Adults Are Bad

This blog came into existence because the Saccharinist was fatigued with all of the horrible news in the world and the complete lack of honest evaluation of it on a regular basis by anyone in any mainstream or even off-the-cuff-mainstream media. Everyday the news, sadly, is bad.

So now I wonder, from all my experiences in life, from all the people I've met -- whether for a moment or longer -- are most adults bad? I mean, a newborn child is born with no anger, no hate, no meanness, no resentment, no jealousy. But his or her life from that moment on determines his/her happiness, day by day, moment by moment.

Sadly, and I think most people would agree, most babies grow up into bad adults. Bad means unloving, unhelpful, unkind, unpleasant, dishonest, inhumane in the most basic but compassionate sense of the word. In all senses, "bad" is a weakness -- a failure to be upfront and genuine in human relations. And most adults are guilty of this.

Everybody knows this -- it is not shocking or untrue. The bigger question, then, is why? Why are adults so inhumane toward eachother? Why are adults so bad? Why don't adults respect eachother and themselves? Where, as John Lennon and others before him and since have said, is all the love?

The answer comes easily in the Persian language: oghdeh or in another word, kambood. These terms describe a "perceived lacking" which is different than a real lacking. Most adults look around them at the other people they see, they meet, they interact with, and covet. They covet what other people have. They somehow feel that the things that others have -- as varied as wealth, beauty, education, success, talent, charisma, anything at all -- are things they also want to have, and as a result their feelings of lacking these things makes them mean-spirited. It is a matter of envy. Of jealousy. But it's wrong, it's irrational, and it's not true.

The old phrase "money doesn't make you happy" is a valid analysis of this problem: happiness is in the heart, not in the hand. Happiness is an attitude, it is a frame of mind. Nothing and nobody but yourself can stop you from being happy.

This is not about perfection: you can't be nice to and like everbody all the time, that's a fact. An old friend mentioned last night that one should be wary of those people who are friends with everybody: "someone who's friends with everybody is really friends with nobody." And that's true because you can't please everyone all the time without losing out on yourself, without being dishonest. And you can't be happy when you're living a lie. But the fact is, most adults are un-nice, for no sensible or genuine reason whatsoever.

So will people change? Will the good people someday outnumber the bad? It seems unlikely in these days of capitalistic greed, religious brainwashing, and political disingenuousness. Love, kindness and humanity has taken a backseat to pretense and profit. But there is still one positive that remains in human relations: there are still good people out there -- few and far between as they are.