A strip by the excellent Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic from years back has stuck in my mind despite passing time. In it, the poor Charlie Brown got his friend Linus to reverse to his security blanket habit mere minutes after the latter found himself cured. In doing so, Charlie Brown was only trying to make up for a bad deed by his dog Snoopy. Of course, had he known better that he would have refrained from the move. So that, heartbroken at his mistake, he seeks counseling at what his likely the worst source of that commodity ever imagined : Lucy’s psychiatric stand. He complains that he only wanted to do the right thing to which Lucy answers : … that there was never so much bad done in this world than by people who meant well! And she was right!
Yes, in truth, there were certainly many fold more instances of bad things happening through people that were trying to do good than any other way. Because there are more people trying to do good than ones trying to do bad, thank God but also because we don’t routinely defend ourselves from well-intended folks. Don’t get mistaken and fall into despair though, the above is only true by numbers of instances and not by results. One Mao, one Stalin or one Hitler do more bad than hundreds of thousands of well meaning good people. You’d have to add up that many lifetimes of involuntary errors to tally the 60 + 40 + 30 millions of all included deaths brought about by this trio respectively and then some. So many, Lucy not much! But this is little solace to those that hurt, grieve and fault themselves for consequences of their failures no matter how well motivated. Desperate at the results of their attempts, they are in danger of giving up trying to do the right thing.
Do or Do not. There is no try.
The above is a quote from master Jedi Yoda in Star Wars VI – Return of the Jedi. It is utter stupidity but it is also incomplete. Right before these words, Yoda said : No! Try not. What the fictional character meant then is that one should go for it, give it their all and not make half-hearted attempts. Had he simply expressed that trying is useless that it would have constituted one of if not the worst movie lines ever. For trying is the essence of life. Show me a live individual that accepts the above quote as a valid proposition and I’ll show a liar or an idiot depending. Even the “Failure is not an option.” quote attributed to Gene Kranz is but a movie line extrapolated from an interview with Apollo program Flight Controller Bill Broyles. As almost all cinema dialogues, it doesn’t bear the scrutiny of reality. Yes, it describes a necessary attitude of those that attempt what has never been done before. No, it does not fit real life!
In real life, every day, every single minute in fact, people fail. In civilized surroundings where uncertainty is minimized through method, systemization and technology, this may not be evident and yet, humans die of hunger every 3.6 seconds despite the fact that there is enough food produced to keep us all alive : if THAT is not a failure of good will, tell me what is? No one is perfect at every thing and even discounting mortal results, many bright folks hit their fingers with hammers and end up not hanging that picture on the wall. Successful people even know that failure can be a source or learning. And heck if failure was so rare, we wouldn’t give valetudinarian awards and gold medals, now would we. Considering sports, think of football’s upcoming World Cup in Brazil! In 19 editions, this competition recognized only 8 nations as world champs. Since it now numbers 209 Associations, that’s 208 failures per year? And even with more modest beginnings, it totals a few thousand! Do you think these teams played without hope of doing well? Have all these nations abdicated on account of not having succeeded? The sense of doing good in sports may not quite have the moral value of trying to do good that Charlie Brown intended but the analogy still stands.
Enter Willem de Zwijger A.K.A. William of Orange Nassau called the Silent. This undeniably courageous Prince that led his country’s revolt and independence from the House of Spain that died assassinated for it left us with the only proper quote on failing, failure and attempting for good purposes.
“It is not necessary to hope to attempt nor to succeed to perseverate.”
Attempt because you can, because it is what life is all about. If you try out of good intentions, the value of the tentative is magnified, its worth that much higher. Bad results are just results and not in any way significant of your intent. The only reason why it’s disheartening to fail to do good is because good was not achieved. Had you not had good at heart that you’d be feeling no disappointment or heck not have tried at all. The feeling of of having missed on doing good is never felt by those that do not try to help. That is what Willem tried to teach us and his words are pearls of the human spirit despite the uncounted multitude that won’t understand them. Attempt because you can and persist because you’re too good to desist. Failure at doing good is only unknown to those that don’t mean well to begin with!
Or to alleviate Charlie Brown’s suffering : There never was so much bad done in this World than by people who did not try!
Tay.
Definitive Lapse of Reason 