Wow, interesting post. I related to paragraph one but my experience was NOT believing in people was the mistake, and that separated me from everybody else. I struggle with that now. All I can do is see the good in others that i can (while maintaining unwavering skepticism about the evil) and bring about the best of every situación. In other words, I think your advice is partially right but I would qualify it by saying that you should make an active and constant effort to bring out the good in every situation, and only the good. Otherwise, you're fucked.