Turn That Superbowl Loss Into Lemonade

Leibnitz is alive and well. You don’t hear much about Leibnitz’ philosophy anymore but his was actually a very entertaining and mind bending one to study. In addition to kooky positions like pre-established harmony and monadism, Leibnitz tackled the age-old problem of evil. Leibnitz’ version of the problem of evil goes a little something like this:

There is a perfect and GOOD god who created everything.

Because nothing imperfect can flow from a perfect being, and evil being an imperfection, there is in fact no evil.

Humans, with limited vision, only think there is evil because they do not have the god’s eye view of events, or what Leibnitz’ contemporary Spinoza, referred to as sub specie aeternitatis.

            It could go something like this:

Love one gets cancer and dies (evil, seemingly)
Grieving relative vows to become doctor and help others battle cancer
Relative becomes doctor and goes on to help numerous people battle and survive cancer,
turning a seemingly evil into an actual benefit (or as Leibnitz, would call it, a Best-Of-All-Possible-Worlds)

So you can plug in any evil you like, let a little time go by, view things objectively, and the evil lemons will give you lemonade. Take your pick, cancer, The Holocaust, 9/11, the Browns…anything…and it is actually perfect, the best of all possible worlds.

Jump to 2015 and the pinnacle of sporting events, the NFL Superbowl. By now you know you know what happened at the end of the game. The Seahawks chose to pass when everyone and their brother and their brother’s dog walker, and his red headed cousin would have given the ball to their cross-eyed running back, nicknamed Beast Mode, Marshawn Lynch. 

So a few days have passed and listen to the Leibnitzian talk from a Seahawks player after the disastrous ending. 

His roommate, Robert Turbin, said he tried to soothe Wilson by telling him that this game, devastating as it was, would wind up as a positive because he would be able to use it to inspire kids.

“One day, you’re going to be talking to some kid, or talking to some high-school quarterback who may be low on confidence or struggling with his game,’’ Turbin said he told Wilson on Monday. “You’re going to give him the example about how you threw a pick on the last play of the game in the Super Bowl.
(http://seattletimes.com/html/larrystone/2025614047_larrystonecolumn04xml.html)

Lemons into lemonade. Now of course, no one is saying that an interception is evil, but you would have to think that losing the superbowl is far from the best of all possible worlds. Not so my Leibnitzian friends. That interception was glorious, that loss was glorious. Grieve not, rejoice, this is the best of all possible worlds. Just ask any Browns fan.