If you had been picking cotton all day like I have, you'd be feeling tired and reckless too. – Aristotle
Do you ever stop to think about what it's like to take a walk in someone else's shoes? Someone else's socks? Maybe their pants and underwear too? It might be very constricting and you have no idea. You haven't even tried it. How can you judge someone fairly without knowing every aspect of their life and all of the circumstances that led them to where they are, standing in front of you now? You can't. So don't even try. Don't even pretend that you can. There's no point.
Instead, focus on positive things, like the things that you like more about yourself than the person you can't even pretend to judge. This is not spiteful; it is merely observant. I recommend drawing no conclusions from such thought processes except to highlight your own personal strengths in a way which makes you more comfortable with your present situation. That is what you want, right? You want to be comfortable. You want to be happy. One very easy way to achieve this is by always thinking happy thoughts. This is like Dr. Seuss 101, but I guess a lot of whiny, self-loathing posers missed that particular course.
Of course, sometimes bad things happen to good people... or maybe good things happen to bad people; life isn't always fair, and this is why it is easier for some people to be happier than others. One little secret that a lot of people may not know is that good people tend to think that bad people are actually happier than they are, and vice versa. (Or, as you have doubtlessly heard before, 'the grass is always greener on the other side.') The good people are thus struggling constantly with the temptation to commit acts of personal greed and hedonism, while the bad people have to deal with a nagging feeling that maybe they ought to give up having a good time. Who's really happy? The unclassifiables, who have not registered to fight in armed wars for either the Good or the Bad sides, are fairly likely to be content with the fact that they have not yet signed their own death warrant. Unfortunately for those who have already unwittingly signed up, your pledge for military service is irrevocable (unless you are gay).
Here's another piece of key advice: things are never quite as bad as you think they are; they're slightly better, unless you are an optimist. The problem with optimists is that they lack any decent grasp of reality; for example, they expect good things to happen even when they have become accustomed to bad things occurring on a regular basis. They expect good things to happen even when doing activities which virtually always precipitate bad things. The good news, however, is that things – like people – will also soon commit a virtuous act of self-destruction, at least if they have signed up for the Good or Bad sides. The unclassifiable things, as to be expected, are presented with the coveted free pass.
Aristotle was prescient in his warnings. Not only is slavery immoral, it puts its facilitators under quite the damning lens. At least I think that's what he was trying to say in that admittedly fluff piece he did on cotton. Unlike many other philosophers, Aristotle has never been falsely attributed with anything, so we can only take his words at face value here. Perhaps not 'face value' per se, but look, the guy was trying to get some really serious point across. It would be, quite frankly, irresponsible to ignore it.
