Many of us agree that the high self-esteem Mary Sue mentality is annoying; the main character is more effortlessly capable, more successful and has a cooler lifestyle than everyone else, making her the most important person around and everyone else who can’t keep up must be a loser. The flipside of that coin is the low self-esteem despair mentality; life is terrible and everyone is miserable, and you better get used to it because nothing is ever going to change for the better. The failure and despair mentality is the reason why I can’t abide many modern sitcoms filled with rude, unlikeable characters, popular music filled with whining, growling and self-loathing, and also why I chose to forgo taking AP English back in high school.

I recognize that people as a whole lose more often than they win. Sometimes failure can be humorous, sadness can be relatable and comforting, and tragedy can be cathartic. It teaches us that we’re not alone; we’re not the only people in the world with problems and other people managed to overcome their troubles, too. But too much despair can be unhealthy. It creates victimhood mentalities, robs us of our personal agency and fosters ill will toward our fellow man.