(no subject)

[rivka]

In all persons there is the possibility of decency, however it may have been warped and deadened. The greatest adventure is to seek it out and establish it.
-George O'Dell

This is one of my articles of faith as a therapist. I heard this quote yesterday, at church, and seized upon it as an expression of something I have long believed. I used to say that my therapeutic skill rested on my ability to find a grain of likeability in just about anyone, and my belief in the possibility of change. But I like this way of expressing it better, because I can believe in the possibility of decency (however deadened) even in people for whom I can't find a single present thing to like.

I'm not sure that this is a particularly common article of faith. In some circles I move in, I get the feeling that the reverse is true - that there's a usually-unvoiced belief that real people, decent people who matter (because they're highly intelligent, and read for pleasure, and weren't popular in high school, and don't believe in silly things like Christianity or mainstream culture) are a small minority, while the majority of people are pretty much wastes of space. Deadwood. Sheeple.

How to explain the eagerness to believe that "most people" are everything you despise?