I think life presents a problem in general about all human endeavors and how we judge them. We all have very fine ideas and intentions, but we’re all human, so the reality of our actual lives rarely comes close to what our principles and intentions aspire to.
If we were all to truly take stock of one another, and of any time, place, people, person, or idea, we could easily find enough in them to criticize and dislike to condemn them all. If each man had his just desserts, who would scape whipping?
That’s the primary insight of Judeo-Christian religion. All fall short. We all fall short of the glory of our principles, our intentions, our ideals. We all fail our own and each others’ tests. Our grand plans constantly go wrong, we constantly violate our own standards, we are constantly being two-faced and hypocritical, we are constantly making things worse that we were intending to improve.
There is just so much in everyone around us, and in ourselves, to be disappointed in, that it could easily swallow up all our purported goodness, patience, kindness, and hope, all our fine intentions and words and ideas. We could easily condemn everyone and everything and become terribly resentful and cynical, or become seared in our conscience and simply learn to ignore and forget them.
It’s not just big-ticket items like slavery or racism are popularly abhorred in the cultural moment. It’s everything about how everyone is treated. You don’t have to dig very deep to find corruption and disappointment lurking everywhere. Everyone is a victim or a victim in waiting, and everyone is either a perpetrator or a perpetrator in waiting. We are a snake always ready to swallow its own tail.
The question is, what can save us from such a trap, if the evil cannot be ignored or avoided? If there is no one who isn’t subject to the same weaknesses, no unstained people. If ignoring evil only lets it thrive, what hope is there? We have no untouched islands to escape to, no people that can be trusted.
Even our attempts to confront evil often go terribly wrong and redound upon us. We can’t ignore it, can’t escape it, can’t defeat it. Because it is nothing more or less than us. We can’t defeat, ignore, or escape ourselves. So how do we live with hope, when history gives the lie to all our best intentions?
Making Nobody Happy 