Who's a cynic

They say that what goes around comes around. The theory is, whatever evil you do to others will come to you. Let's say a guy cheats on his girlfriend. Her friends tell her, "What goes around comes around." And somehow, this is supposed to make everyone feel better because the universe or higher being(s) will do unto the guy what he did unto the girlfriend. And maybe later on in life, the guy's wife cheats on him. "What goes around comes around," everyone surmises, and somehow, that shows how everything came full circle.

But if what went around really came around, then Hitler wouldn't have gotten off so easy, innocent children wouldn't be forced into labor, and murderers and child molesters wouldn't be acquitted on a technicality. Now if you ascribe to a religion or faith, then yes, Hitler and child molesters will go to Hell or the equivalent thereof in other religions. Yet in this life, there are people who do lots of bad things and go on to live perfectly happy lives, without guilt, shame or punishment.

Let's face it. Shit happens. There is no rhyme or reason. I suspect that, for the most part, people tell themselves "what goes around comes around" to justify or rationalize the bad events that seem to happen for no reason. This goes hand in hand with the saying, "everything happens for a reason."

In my life, I certainly don't think that all the people who've mistreated me will have bad things happen to them because of what they did. And if bad things did happen to them, it wouldn't be because of their bad acts. Bad people and bad things just sometimes exist and occur. It's a part of life. They serve no purpose. They just sucked. Maybe they made me tougher, wiser, and more self-reliant. But I don't think you can tell a girl who was abused when she was 8 that her abuse "happened for a reason." Given the choice, I think she'd rather that not happen at all. And I don't think telling her that "what goes around comes around" assuages the trauma of her abuse. Especially if her abuser has a good defense attorney and is subsequently acquitted.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. Maybe, if we try hard enough, we can see the silver lining in every shitty thing that happens. And even if there is no silver lining, maybe some people just need to believe that there is something or Someone out there who will right all the wrongs. We all need our beliefs, don't we? Otherwise, we just might have to relent to a fact so unbearable, so unimaginable, that we concoct religions and one-liners to circumvent it: that sometimes, life just sucks.