If the Good Guys Won Would They be Happy?

Is this cat a good cat or bad cat?

In high school and all the way to college, I remember being spurred on by the adage, “Good guys finish last.”  Feeling represented by that statement, I felt a continual support for the underdog, “good guys.”

Who are the good guys?  In high school, it seemed the good guys were matched in stark contrast to the bad guys.  Perhaps we could juxtapose two images: one of the squeaky clean, uber-respectful nice guy and the arrogant, perhaps selfish bad guy. 

The epithet, “Good guys finish last” seemed based around the idea that girls appreciated the arrogance or confidence of bad guys more than the respect or kindness of good guys.  Regardless of whether this philosophy actually matches reality, one might look closer at the phrase itself. 

“Good guys finish last.”  Taking the sentence directly at face value, I sense anger rising from the speaker.  The narrator is not happy about being a nice guy; rather, there seems to be resentment in the tone.  It’s not working.  He doesn’t say, “Nice guys have to wait longer for pizza delivery” or “Nice guys can't watch Saturday morning cartoons.”  The emphasis rests on “last” with a feeling of frustrated finality.  He lost.  Maybe he’s the hero in an unfair world where he can’t get what he wants: the girl, the job, whatever. 

Problem is, life isn’t fair, and we frequently don’t get what we want whether our personal stories suggest we should have gotten it or not.  Do we have to look at the whole show of life as us losing?  Events happen and our personal strategies for happiness sometimes work and sometimes don’t. 

All humans are complicated.  Life might not be so simple as nice guys and bad guys, nice girls and bad girls, nice cats and bad cats.  Conversely, life is simple: we’re all trying to make it, to survive. 

The mentality involved in “nice guys finish last” appears born from anger at circumstances not fitting our personal desires.  This point of view ignores how alike we all are and how we all want to be happy.

Is a bad guy a bad guy in his own mind?

If all the good guys won would they still be good guys?  Better yet, would they be happy?

What do you think?  Share your thoughts in the comments.