Here in America, the ‘‘good life’’ is very
narrowly defined as the ‘‘American way of life’’
which is the pursuit of wealth, power, fame,
material possessions, and titles…
Which is vastly different than what either the Greeks
or Romans would have defined the ‘‘good life’’
The Greeks would have said the ‘‘good life’’
is one where one contemplates the universe…
a theory picked up by the Catholic Church and carried
into the Middle Ages… even today, the idea of going
to heaven centers around the eternal contemplation
of god…
Whereas in America today, it is the gaining of
material wealth and goods that is considered to
be the ‘‘good life’’
But let us further examine this in light of current events…
How does the deportations of ‘‘illegals’’ help us bring
about the ‘‘good life?’’…How does the GOP/MAGA
drive to turn America into a dictatorship with Martial law,
help us bring about the ''good life"…
How do the attacks on gays or trans people, help us
turn America and ourselves into the ‘‘good life’’…
How does having almost 50 million people with food
insecurities help us bring about the ''good life"…
and how does having over 7 million children also
with food insecurities allow us to bring about the
''good life?"
In fact, in thinking about our current course of actions,
how does any of it, the GOP/MAGA party attempt to
basically, genocide everyone who isn’t white and rich,
help us bring about the ''good life"
What has been forgotten is the idea that the ‘‘good life’’
is not the pursuit of wealth or power or material goods that
is the American way today…
Now it might be said that the ‘‘good life’’ is whatever
one decides, but answer misses the idea that the
‘‘good life’’ isn’t about one’s single purpose…
no, the idea of the ‘‘good life’’ must, because
we are social creatures and can only exist
due to others, the state and the society at large…
the idea of the ‘‘good life’’ must include the community,
for it is the community that allows us to survive…
human beings can only be or become human beings
within the society/state… any answer to what is the
‘‘good life’’ must include our idea of the ‘‘good life’’
within context of the state/society… the very
existence of the ‘‘good life’’ depends on the
strength of the state/society… and as the
GOP/MAGA party continues to weaken America,
the idea of the ‘‘good life’’ becomes weaker
and more uncertain because we have put
the ‘‘good life’’ into the context of depriving others
of their rights, their value, or said another way,
American is practicing nihilism with its very actions
of limiting rights to citizens or straight people or
Christians… the ‘‘good life’’ to be the ‘‘good life’’
must be universal, for everyone, to be the ‘‘good life’’…
we cannot be practicing the ‘‘good life’’ if we are
denying rights to some but not all, that is not the ‘‘good life’’…
for that is prejudice and bigotry… and the ‘‘good life’’
is not about being prejudice or being a bigot, the
‘‘good life’’ to be the ‘‘good life’’ it must include all,
it must be universal…
the idea of the ‘‘good life’’ is not a personal thing, an
individual thing, but a communal, community thing…
for we are products of the community, and what strengthen
the community, strengthen us personally…
and what damages us communally, damages us
personally… that is what being human means…
it is reflected within our communal living, not
our own individual self… our own pursuit of
the ‘‘good life’’ must be tied into the community,
or it isn’t the ‘‘good life’’
can you imagine the ‘‘good life’’ and exclude community?
Kropotkin
) are actually thinking deeply and even, ironically, asking the Demon for advice on what to do. And sometimes, they get answers. They follow through. 