And the question often asked, what does it take to
be a ‘‘good’’ person?.. and why ‘‘good’’ and not ‘‘evil’’ or
‘‘bad’’
There are certain basic in being human… One: human beings
have needs… both physical and psychological needs… that to
be alive, as we are, entails having certain, set needs… our bodily
needs are of food, water, air, shelter, health care, education…
and our psychological needs are love, a sense of belonging,
of safety/security, of self-esteem and the esteem of others…
There are of course other needs, but these are the basics human
needs…
And the other certainty in being human is our need, both our
physical and psychological need for others. Human beings
are evolutionary built to require other human beings…
socially, politically, educationally, and as a means for us
to reach our needs and potential…
I cannot, under any circumstance, reach either my
bodily or psychologically needs alone, by myself…
every need I listed above requires a state/society for
us to reach and meet our physical and psychological needs…
So, what is good given the requirement of state/society to reach
our bodily and psychological needs? Helping people to reach their
needs, both physical and psychologically, is good, preventing
people from meeting their needs is bad/evil…
If through my actions, or inactions, I prevent you from being able
to meet your needs, I am acting with evil or bad intent…
that is part of being good or evil… the other aspect is
being able to help people reach their possibilities, their
potential… to help people reach those possibilities
that potential, is good…
This is why our current system of ''What is in it for me?"
has failed… Our private vices, which capitalist claim
drives the modern world, in reality, damages, harms
both people and the state/society…
Seeking out private vices is to ignore, neglect our primary
goal of making our state/society better, more engaged in
seeking out good and the other word for good, which is
virtue…the act of seeking out virtue is the act of helping
others reach their own needs, both bodily and psychologically…
and others act of virtue is the others allowing you to seek out
your own needs, both bodily and psychologically…
you help me reach my own needs and I help you
reach you needs… that is the essence of a virtuous state…
You want a ‘‘utopia’’ that would be it… we aid each other
in reaching our own bodily and psychologically needs…
and we aid others via the actions of the state/the society…
that is the definition of a virtuous state/society…
Under that definition, we are not prevented from
acting/moving toward the future… for we can act
within our desire to create a better future, that will
also allow others and us, in meeting our own needs…
and for most people, most, the stated desire of people
is to become, ''HAPPY"" and I have stated before, I
don’t believe that the ‘‘human’’ goal is or should be
the gaining of happiness or contentment or joy
or gratification or even bliss…
The point of existence is to seek out our potential, our
possibilities and reach them… a contented man isn’t
going to seek out his potential, his possibilities…
To a very real degree, I don’t want us to be happy or
contented… Life isn’t seeking out our bliss, which is
badly defined as seeking out happiness…
The fact is that we should be like the prophets of the bible,
always wrestling with god… and contented people
don’t wrestle with god… only the discontented,
the ones who want more, the ones who are seeking out
their own possibilities, who wrestle with god/life…
seeking out our ‘‘happiness’’ is the path to our current
malaise and discontentment that we mask or hide from
ourselves and others… we are seeking out the wrong things
and we are paying the price for that ignorance…
Seeking out empty promises can only lead to the
empty lives we lead today…and seeking out the
nihilism of today, the seeking out the false idols of
fame, money, titles, material possessions, and power,
can only lead to the modern despair we have today…
We are empty, false because our moderns’ isms
of capitalism and communism and religion are empty,
false promises…and why are they false, empty?
Because in that pursuit of capitalism and nationalism
and communism and religion, we are pursuing
nihilistic values… nihilism: the negation of
human beings and their values…
An example of the negation of human beings and their values lies
in various school districts, mostly in the south, attempting to
‘‘promote’’ Christian values by putting the Ten Commandments
into schools… the very act of putting them on the school walls
is supposed to be enough to turn around the entire society…
It is not enough to post empty values on school walls, we
have to do something very radical, and that is to live, to
lead our lives with Christain values… If you don’t live
by Christain values, then who cares what you post on
school walls…the question is not about how others
live by or don’t live by those values, the question is,
Do you live by those Christian values?
Do you practice what you preach or do you
preach empty values that only others should
live by, not yourself?
The questions we should be asking is this, What values
am I supposed to have that will allow me to be a ‘‘good’’ person?
What is a ‘‘good’’ person? Not what I do for a living,
which for many of us is independent of morals and ethics…
and here I return to the idea of public and private ethics, morals…
Kropotkin