“Everyone’s bad”: A guide to optimism
“Despite everything, I believe that people really are good at heart.” -Anne Frank
As much as I love Anne Frank, she’s wrong – people are bad.
Jesus even called someone out who called Him good because He wanted more clarification:
“So Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.’ ” -Luke 18:19
That’s the approach I take with optimism. In short, no one is good but God.
God’s good
“[M]y God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:19
This is the optimist side of Christianity. God is good, so we know He’s always going to do good things.
- Like keep His promises.
- Like stay with us all the time.
- Like give us eternal life with Him.
This side of optimism is fairly intuitive. The difficulty here is in actually living it out when circumstances don’t feel so peachy.
What’s not so intuitive is the other part…
Everyone’s bad
“[A]ll have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” -Romans 3:23
According to God, that means everyone’s bad.
In context, I think Christians understand this. But without the context, a lot of Christians agree with Anne Frank and most of the rest of the world – they think people are pretty much good.
Why assuming bad is good
Pessimists (they like to call themselves “realists”) think their perspective gives them an edge up because they can plan for bad instead of getting ripped off by it.
In other words, pessimists are pessimists so they won’t be surprised by pain.
Fair enough. I think part of that applies for Christians as well. For example, we shouldn’t be surprised when we hear of school shootings. That’s the natural result of life without God.
But there’s a deeper benefit of assuming everyone’s bad:
We should be pessimistic about people so we’ll be surprised by good.
Optimism vs. pessimism example
Have you ever helped out a homeless person, something simple like chatting for a while?
If you have, you know that homeless guy is probably insanely thankful you took the time. Like falling all over you thankful.
On the other hand, if you’d chatted for an hour with your neighbors, how thankful would they be? They might say thanks, but it’s probably no where near the level of appreciation you received from the homeless guy.
Why pessimists are more thankful
The homeless man didn’t expect anything from you. He assumed you’d ignore him like almost everyone else.
In general, though, the rest of us expect people to act fairly friendly. Chatting with a neighbor isn’t life changing.
So the difference is expectations. The homeless man was pessimistic about you, but you broke that expectation by being friendly. That’s why he was thankful.
Your neighbors, though, were optimistic about you. Their thankfulness level would only change if you did something bad – in that case, it would go down because you’d break their good expectations of you.
So pessimists can be more thankful because for them bad is the default and good is a blessing instead of good being the default.
Why we’re joyful
Overall then, we’re joyful because…
- You and I are bad, but God is good, so when He blesses us, we’re thankful because we know we don’t deserve it.
- Everyone else is bad, so we expect the worst but are thankful for the best.
We’re optimistic about God but not anyone else. [For more on this perspective, check Rights vs. Privileges.]
So listen, Anne Frank and everyone else who thinks people are basically good, you’re not giving yourself a happier attitude – you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
You actually experience a happier attitude when you assume everyone’s bad because then you’re insanely thankful when God works through them to do good.
Serving Suggestions:
(1) This is one of those perspectives that’s difficult to understand until you try it. So that’s my suggestion. Try it… even for only a day. Are you more thankful when you’re assume the best or assume the worst?
(2) Beyond the practical benefits of increased thankfulness, which is more accurate? From a biblical perspective, are people basically good or bad? I think the Bible is clear on the answer, so I encourage you to study it for yourself to immerse yourself in this perspective.