Babylon 5 (1993-1998)
If you are upset by how unfair life is, just imagine how upset you’d be if it were fair.
(HT: Unknown)
Explanation
“I used to think that it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.”
Marcus Cole, Babylon 5 (1993-1998), Season 3: Point of No Return
Marcus in B5 states this in the opposite sense that I would say it, but there is a certain amount of sense to what he says. Marcus is at least semi-Pelagian in his beliefs, while I am full Calvinist. If I were to make a longer statement that matched his, I might say,
“I used to think that it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I realized, wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and I got all that I deserved for all the terrible things I have actually done? So, now I take great comfort in the general common grace and unfairness offered by God the Father in the way He has ordered the universe.”
We humans are very good at pretending we’re super great people. “Well, I have certainly never done anything that meant that I deserve to die someday.”
Oh, really? You have no dark moment where you took something that did not belong to you? You have never taken credit for something someone else did? You’ve never cheated? You’ve never hurt someone with a lie? Or deliberately used the truth in a way that was intended to cut and harm? You’ve never taken joy at the misfortune of someone else? You’ve never hated? You’ve never retold stories about someone you heard and hadn’t confirmed whether they were really true? And that’s without touching the darker sins people all around us participate in willingly all the time: violence, abuse, human trafficking, neglect, murder, adultery, threats, and so on.
If you’ve never done anything wrong, you must be an absolute saint, but I don’t believe you. Everyone has a dark secret. Something they’ve done that haunts them. The only people who do not have dark doubts about what they’ve done are the people who really don’t feel bad when they do wrong, who feel justified in their crimes. Go look it up. Studies show that the people with the highest sense of self-esteem are violent criminals. They were justified in doing violence. They deserved that ill-gotten booty. The people they destroyed had it coming to them.
No, we are all sinners. We all deserve to die.
The true unfairness is that we do not die more quickly, that we have joy in this life even when we steal and harm and murder to get it. We stand on the backs of slaves to prosper and we pretend that we’re okay people.
We are not.
We are sinners.
We deserve much worse.
The miracle is that we have any happiness at all.
And if you don’t believe it, if you don’t believe you have any darkness that deserves harm, you’re probably one of the worst offenders.