Here’s a theory of mine that I’ve had for quite a while. It is really more of a pattern of observations than an actual theory, but here goes — my first foray into philosophy. Or whatever you’d call it.
I’ve seen this occur a lot in real life, and in movies, TV shows, etc. Even in literature, like those [horrible] tragedies where everyone seems to be screwed from the beginning.
So it starts off with some type of issue. On its own, it’s usually not that bad. Perhaps an annoyance or an embarassment – sometimes it’s pretty serious but nothing crazy. The point is you’ll live, and the situation hasnt yet gone to hell. But then there seems to be an easy way out, a coverup, that just might work and fix everything. It seems like everything can be salvaged and go back to how it was. Either that, or there is a small problem coming up, but you believe and hope that everything will just work out. Or sometimes it’s pretty bad, but…
However, it’s usually when trying to salvage things or patch up that everything usually goes wrong (or gets worse and goes to hell). Take Watergate for example. Now I think the reason things usually go wrong here is that people are either just stupid at assessing risks and think that nothing bad can ever happen to them (feeling of invincibility/luck), or their judgement is impaired in crises and people get sort of desperate and hopeful. Probably a combo of both.
It usually involves a lot of emotion rather than logic. For example, I was watching 24 (it’s a TV show) and like 50 good people die in a quest to save one guy’s family. Obviously there would be no TV show, but I don’t think that was quite worth it - it might have been better to just let them die (and one of the two did in the end, anyways).
Or Anakin Skywalker in Episode 3. He finds out that his wifes gonna die so he throws everything away and goes to the dark side, to try to salvage the situation and make things right. And of course, he just ends up making things worse and his fears come true anyways.
Some more examples:
In 24, some girls are hanging out with some shady guys and then one sort of has a bad feeling but doesn’t act on it and they just think/hope everything’s going to be alright — one of them dies.
This one’s more realistic: You get some stock and it goes down a bit. Sell it now and take a small loss or hang on and lose a lot more, hoping it might go back up and you’ll at least have all your money back, if not more? You can see which one would be the better course of action, and which would make it possible for things to royally screw up.
Come to think of it, this is a bit like Murphy’s law — if something can go wrong, it will. So be prepared for it to happen. And if in a course of actions one of the possibilities is everything going to hell, watch out.
Sure, you can gamble and take risks but … Quit while you’re only losing lightly and things still haven’t gone to hell.
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Update: Some people have wondered why the hell I posted this or where it came from. Well, it is really an introduction to another post that will come later, a story or lesson if you will, and really illustrates this well.
Comments
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jeremiah
1 year, 5 months ago
This seems to me like a really negative view of drama. Interesting…
I’ve personally gotten to the point that I won’t watch a movie or show where you can see what the character is going to do, and you know its a stupid decision, and they go ahead and do it anyway. (I guess its just really predictable television/poorly written movies) I think this means all I watch is discovery channel.
Anand
1 year, 5 months ago
It’s not a criticism of television or stories or anything — it applies to real life.
Karo
1 year, 5 months ago
Logic > emotions. Logical people–the smarter people–will never make such shameful mistakes. Logic > emotions…….always.
Martha Widholm
1 year, 5 months ago
wow.
James
1 year, 5 months ago
Why do you keep deleting my comments? What a coward you are…. not my fault your philosophy is crap.
Anand
1 year, 5 months ago
James: If you hate it so much, why do you keep coming?
And any comments with false information provided, or that are just plainly vulgar and unconstructive, will be deleted. If you want to say something, either leave proper identification and act in a civilized manner, or else go post elsewhere.
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