I’m going to run with the premise that most people are “good.” In order for me to do so I will state a few conditions that must be true in order for someone to be considered “good.” A good person does not kill unjustly nor steal things of consequence. A good person is disposed to helping others or at least a feeling to want to help others even when they don’t. Honestly, at this point I already can’t think of anything else that could make someone qualify as anything more than merely “good” or maybe even better stated “not necessarily bad.”
I figure there is a sliding scale of what it means to be good, but nonetheless most people would consider themselves at the very least good if not so much as moral and decent. I suppose I want to explore these ideas in the context of our current life situation and how things will or won’t change. I recently had a discussion with Jake George about what can compel change and both of us, unfortunately, can’t see much of a point beyond mass extinction or extermination, so I would like to see if that relative conclusion is justified.
Often, when we describe something as good we see little reason to make it better. Good can plant pleasant feelings of accomplishment and worth. Good is encouraging. Of those who find themselves trying to make things better, many times they can find themselves trapped in a world of “never getting good enough.” I’m positive there is some cliché about not over cleaning or eating that I’m missing that speaks to the point that something will never be perfect and you should leave well enough alone. There is something that the people who may tend to over analyze have that those who strive for “good” don’t. They have motivation.
Motivation precedes change. A good person or a good system will rarely and slowly change, and not necessarily in any specified or positive direction. Our criminal justice system is “good” at catching and convicting, but it lacks any motivation to guard against wrongful or pointless convictions. A motivated system concerned with money and/or human well-being would collectively fight to stop racking up drug convictions for example. A good system/person will follow the rules just enough to get whomever is next in rank off their back.
Both Jake and I think there is another motivator besides mass death though, and that is self-actualization. It is finding something that intrigues you, challenges you, makes you endlessly passionate, and enabling you to do as you will with it. Currently, we have a system that attempts to “mass actualize.” We prod children through school like cattle, and proclaim we are getting better educated because we have a tried and true educational system. The glaring inadequacies and decades old complaints about school are too well known to be gone into here, but how little they tend to actually motivate is why I think they will always fail at actually teaching something.
This means I do believe people will convince themselves the classes they are taking are relevant or interesting. When enough time, money, and mental effort is spent on something, you will find some if not many ways to justify taking 4 months to learn something 2 days on Wikipedia and Google would have taught you.
Not to stray too far from an initial point I guess I was making, what are the implications of a bunch of good people inhabiting the earth? It means nothing. If you are a simply a good person you are almost certainly willing to watch as life happens, refrain from delving too far outside your moral scheme, and can die contented with the rules you’ve set up within the rules of a good system. When injustice happens you do not believe it falls on your shoulders because you do not take the responsibility of motivated action. The reason starving African children commercials don’t bother you is because you’ve never wished them ill will and can convince yourself any effort you put forth would get polluted by some corrupted motivation that’s asking for your money. Neither thought necessarily incorrect or unconvincing.
The problem comes in demonizing motivation. There’s an inherent problem in truly realizing and being responsible for a free and powerful will. The easy story I constantly hear is from my fellow dreamer and starter friends. They explain to someone a big idea and it’s met with hostility, doubt, and often fear or ridicule. There seems to be a deep-seeded distrust, anger, and fear towards the doers or arbiters of change. I think these feelings arise in people who have never been taught, nor found the will, to understand how, why, and when things need to change. Because to live in our society means it is good to get angry at those who would threaten your “moral foundation” and distrust people with “different agendas.”
When you realize the implications and power of enacting your will, you automatically take on how far you want to push it. Who you’re willing to work with, what you’re willing to sacrifice, and how you’ll defend what is essentially the expression of your being. This is not a light responsibility and it is not hard to see why most don’t bother to venture such roads. I would argue that in order to have a lasting species, you simply have to get over it. An ignorance of oneself is going to debase and confuse more than any amount of ignorance of another subject.
Motivation doesn’t die, and part of the good news is that it is contagious. I think this is the only reason we’ve managed to get as “far” as a species as we have. On the backs of a few who are motivated towards good, civilizations can thrive. The problem comes from how and why people are motivated. It seems to be a harsh reality that you have to go through some amount of bullshit that compels you to want to react and behave differently. The ones best at regulating their emotions had to deal with years of parental fighting perhaps. Hopefully, after said life experience it generates that “I don’t want to be like them” response and pains are taken to be better. Of course, there are going to be those who take that example and run with it. “If it ‘works’ to illicit this response, I can do it too.” It would be hard to imagine someone that can’t empathize with that thought or see how things play out. And thus we have the inherent distrust of people's motivations.
People are easily manipulated if only because they’re motivations can be known. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing for someone to know how you tick when getting the best out of you means getting the best for themselves. A sure way to avoid being or fostering a leech is to have your own goals and general means of obtaining them. To me, this is impeded when the majority of people just want to live “the good life.” I suppose what I would like to see instead is people living a passionate life. I would love to hear people stand up for virtues and literally fight to preserve the dignity of what they respect and admire. Another problem seems to just be a numbers game. Surely thousands of letters and emails were mailed to our government or BP or Goldman Sachs executives. Protests and rallies sprang up, endless articles written etc. But nothing really changed. Those CEOs and companies still making millions, our leaders still holding seats.
I don’t want you to be good. I want you to be excited. I don’t want you to hate, but motivated to fix or responsible and capable enough to avoid and/or punish justly. The worst kinds of people are those who deliberately and frequently distort the truth to breed anger and fear. These people are motivated no doubt, but are not even remotely hard to identify (I’m looking at you FOX). Therefore, the best kinds of people are the ones who fight to preserve and teach the information we have. The people who read the famous quotes, business guide books, and trends of their era and know, explicitly know, there is an endless array of potential and influence they can exert and are willing to be responsible for.
Teaching and enabling are more than handing something about and saying “here it is.” You have to put it to work. You have to weave whatever you’re teaching into your life and show and explain how you wouldn’t be you without it. You have to express the passion that your knowledge and your life brings you and make people want it so badly they can’t help but feel the same way. It’s not being someone people want to be, it’s being someone that they have to be. Because they know if they aren’t, they aren’t really living. They know that by not holding themselves to that standard they won’t be able to do anything but get by and remain good enough. It’s the absolute hardest form of manipulation, but I have to believe the only honorable form there is.
