On the Internet, people often use quotes in their personal information to
describe themselves or reveal their way of thinking. One person who I saw the
other day had a quote reading "Life is like a river, all you have to do is
sit back, go with the flow, and enjoy the ride."
  Just think about this statement for a moment, and the mindset of the kind
of person who could say it with a straight face.
  In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. Life is not a river
to be relaxed in and enjoyed, because if that's what you do, you'll never get
anywhere.
  Imagine a world in which everybody thought that way. Why bother working?
Why do anything, for that matter? Just sit down under a shady tree, relax,
and enjoy "life". All you really have to do to live is eat. And if you lived
under a fruit tree, you'd never have to leave your tree. You could spend the
rest of your life there, enjoying the flowing river of "life"!
  First of all, most people would probably say that's boring. Indeed, just
doing nothing is pretty boring after a while. There's nothing like activity
to occupy a person's mind and keep them from being bored.
  I don't actually know the person who had this quote, so I don't know what
he does for fun, but I'm guessing it's not sit and sleep. He probably takes
entertainment in watching TV or listening to music. How do things like TV
shows or songs get made? People write them. And the people who wrote them
didn't just sit and enjoy the river of life, because if they did, they would
never have bothered to write at all.
  In a world where everybody thought as this individual does, nobody would
create anything, and thus TV and music wouldn't exist. Nor would anything
else, for that matter. The reason lazy people like this are able to enjoy
themselves is because of the efforts of people who don't think their lives
are about sitting back and enjoying the river of life.
  This same person had another quote: "Smile and the world smiles with you;
Cry and the world tells you to fuck off. That's the way the world is..."
  Now, this is something I'd agree with. Sad though it may be, it's true. The
world is attracted to shiny, happy people. People who laugh and smile a lot,
and approach life with a "sit back and enjoy the river!" attitude appeal to
the base side of the human nature. Meanwhile, people who say anything
negative are scorned and rejected: "Look on the bright side!" and "Smile! It
takes less muscles than frowning!" are the battle cries of the "River Of
Life" people.
  If you've read any of my writings, you may wonder why I seem to talk about
negative things a lot. Why can't I just smile and put a positive spin on
things? Why can't I look on the bright side, and think of the good, not the
bad?
  Because happiness breeds complacence.
  When people try to think only of happy things, they start to feel that the
world really is a wonderful place. Things aren't really so bad, are they?
Sure there are problems, but just don't think about them, and maybe they'll
go away by themselves... And if they don't, they still won't bother you if
you don't think about them. Right?
  Wrong. Try approaching life with this kind of attitude. Quit your job, sit
in a chair, and enjoy the river of life. See how long you can enjoy the ride.
  I try to call things as I see them. If I think something is wrong, I will
say so, instead of shrugging it off and making a joke about it. Am I a
pessimist? I have indeed been called one. Maybe I am. But I would rather be
a pessimist than a fool. The fool says everything is fine when things are
falling apart all around them.
  I'm not sure how often the aforementioned River Of Life person thinks about
starving homeless people, but when (and if) he does, he probably quickly
thinks about funny TV shows instead.