“Why is it that every time I mention faith you think I’m talking about God?”

“The pragmatic survive, and the determined thrive, but faith manages.”^[1]

It is kind of the basic message that echoes through Michael J. Straczynski’s creations, be it the space opera Babylon 5 or the post-apocalyptic drama Jeremiah. It’s a powerful message, and it applies in most cases. Exceptions always exist, as long as sociology is involved.

Pragmatist – you want to do something, you find a way, you get along. You will not suffer from much ordinary trouble as you only aspire as much as is practical, as is necessary or effective in terms of your survival or the continuation of your gene line. You make do, but never become anything truly great, never progress beyond the level of an average person in terms of material value, reputation, life quality, etc. They are the average Joes in our community.

The determined have a different point of view. They set their eyes on something really, really hard to get, and then they work to achieve that goal. Often enough they are successful, because they work for the goal practically non-stop. Their actions are generally methodical, thought through and purposeful, as opposed to the immediate, short-term decisions of pragmatists. They thrive because their aim tends to be idealistic, even unreachable. But that doesn’t stop them from being noble, from doing their best just because they can try to make the world a better place, because they have a mere chance that trying hard will move them an inch closer to their goals, that a little extra effort makes a change.

But both of these are outdone by people with faith. Not because they have someone watching over them or karma treats them better, but because they are even more motivated in their actions than the determined, and their devout belief in their ability to achieve their aspirations is nearly unshakeable. This means they are effectively impervious to drops in motivation due to unsuccessful attempts (or miserable failures, as one might put it), because, as previously mentioned, faith manages. A person with enough belief in something is like a wrecking ball that keeps on going. This can, at times, be a problem. Once upon a time there was a failed German artist that believed he could make the world better by getting rid of all people who infected a pure nation. While his belief lead to many scientific discoveries and an interesting tactic, nowadays better known as ‘zerg rush’, it also caused a significant drop in human population. This was generally received as a really bad thing to happen. But he showed the power of faith, of belief.

In general, faith has a way of making a person happier. You can take all the math in the ‘verse, but undertake a task that you don’t believe in and it will shake you down just like the turn of the worlds. Faith keeps the task possible, tells you you’re losing before you fail, makes it a goal. And in the end, faith manages.