Are humans born inherently good, or inherently evil?We grow up being taught by the media we consume, or by our parents’ warnings and reassurances, that good people always win. That if we try hard enough to be kind, if our intentions are pure, things will eventually work out. The bad guys will get what they deserve. Justice will arrive on time. ‘Karma’s a bitch’, they’d say, like it’s a universal law. But is it actually true? The older I get, the more I realize that reality tells a different story. More often than not, it is the good people who are constantly stepped on, overlooked or quietly sacrificed, while the cruel and the selfish walk away unscathed. Sometimes, they don’t just walk away, they even thrive. And it feels deeply unfair. You can’t help but start to ask yourself the uncomfortable question, ‘if they’re such terrible people, why do they get everything and I don’t?’ Because, here’s the sad truth: the world does not reward goodness the way we were promised it would.In many ways, being ‘evil’ makes it easier to advance. There is something undeniably Machiavellian about success. Those who are willing to lie, manipulate or prioritize themselves at the expense of others often climb faster and fall less. Morality, it seems, is a luxury not everyone can afford. And sometimes, it’s not even cruelty that gets people head, it’s proximity. Being born into the right family. Knowing the right people. Being a ‘nepo baby’ who gets handed opportunities they never had to earn, then watching those opportunities get dressed up as “talent” or “hard work”. Doors opening for them not because they’re qualified, but because they’re familiar. This is where being good really starts to feel like a disadvantage. Because these people can be mediocre, careless or even terrible and yet, they still somehow managed to get ahead simply because they’re close to power. They get the luxury to fail, to stumble, to mess up publicly and still land on their feet, while everyone else has to exceptional just to be noticed. Flawless, just to be considered. It’s in the moments like this that goodness begins to feel optional. Not because people suddenly want to be bad, but because the world keeps proving that integrity, effort and merit are not what it rewards. When privilege does the heavy lifting, being good doesn’t make you noble. It just makes you easier to overlook.
It takes a lot to keep choosing to be good, especially when everything around you keeps tempting you not to.In a world obsessed with consumption, status and what we can show for ourselves, being good almost always comes with a cost. It means swallowing your words when you know you could hurt someone back. It means staying quiet in moments where speaking up would feel justified, because you understand that they didn’t mean it or because kindness feels heavier than retaliation. Being good means taking the harder road when the easier one is clearly corrupt. It means giving, even when you don’t have much to spare, because someone else needs it more. And no one really will applaud you for that. There’s no reward for restraint. No guarantee that choosing decency will put you ahead. Most of the time, it just leaves you tired, questioning whether it’s even worth it. So maybe the real question isn’t whether humans are born good or evil. Maybe it’s whether the world is slowly teaching us that goodness is a weakness, and cruelty is a shortcut. And whether, after knowing how unfair it all is, we still choose to remain good anyway. Not because it’s easy. Not because it pays off. But because choosing goodness, in a world that doesn’t reward it, might be the quietest form of defiance there is. There are only a handful of people I’ve met in my life who chose to be good. Truly good. Without needing an audience. Watching them, it was impossible not to feel a kind of sadness for the injustice that always seemed to follow them. They were taken advantage of, overlooked and was always asked to carry more than they should have. And for a very long time, I’ve always mistaken that as a weakness. But the longer I sat with it, the more I realized that there was something defiant about their goodness.
Yes, life was harder for them. They didn’t always advance the way others did. By society’s standards, they weren’t the most successful people in the room. But they were the ones remembered. When their names came up, voices softened. Conversations slowed. There was weight in the respect people had for them, spoken the way you’d speak of a great leader or a warrior, even if they never held that kind of power or titles in their lifetime. Sometimes, especially after they were gone. And that’s when it struck me: that kind of respect is rare. Rarer than money. Rarer than status. It cannot be taken, inherited or forced. It is earned quietly, over a lifetime of choosing goodness when it would’ve been easier not to. So no, being good does not guarantee a soft life.It does not promise success, protection or fairness. More often than not, it means being passed over, misunderstood or hurt by people who gain more by caring less. Being good can feel like choosing the losing side, over and over again, in a world that rewards proximity, power and ruthlessness. But maybe goodness was never meant to be a strategy for getting ahead. Maybe it was never about winning at all. Because long after the titles fade, the money changes hands and the advantages disappear, what remains is how someone made others feel. Who they were when no one else was watching. Whether they chose to take more than they needed, or leave something behind for someone else. Choosing to be good may feel exhausting, thankless and painfully inconvenient, but maybe that’s because it is. And choosing it anyway, being fully aware of the cost, isn’t foolishness. It’s resistance. A refusal to let the world decide who you become. In a world that keeps insisting cruelty is easier, that kind of choice might be the most radical thing a person can make. Sincerely, Cherie. The Whiffler is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell The Whiffler that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
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Friday, 23 January 2026
Being A Good Person Sucks
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Being A Good Person Sucks
Choosing decency in a world that doesn't reward it. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ...
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Dear Reader, To read this week's post, click here: https://teachingtenets.wordpress.com/2025/07/02/aphorism-24-take-care-of-your-teach...
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