“Good” is a term that doesn’t really have an objective definition. It is wholly subjective based on the perspective of the observer, and of the participant. The definition can vary between both, and the conclusion may also vary.
For someone like myself, “good” means the following: displaying kindness, compassion, generosity, empathy, a willingness to listen, and a desire to help others. If you exhibit these traits, you are a “good” person.
Of course, not exhibiting all of these traits doesn’t make you a “bad” person either. I can only speak for my own culture, as a citizen of the United States, but it seems as if we live in a dichotomous world. As George W. Bush once said, “you’re either with us, or you’re against us.” That kind of binary thinking is what leads good people to see themselves as bad.
It is this kind of authoritarian rhetoric, this unyielding legalism steeped in propaganda, that causes people to question who they are. That bothers me immensely. Your value, your worth, is not tied to the state, nor is it necessarily connected to a legal center acting as a moral arbitrator (which it is not). As far as I’m concerned, if you display the traits I listed above, you are a good person.
It seems as if we have fallen into a fairyland existence. We, as a people, have so attached ourselves to commercial media, that we let it judge us and fill in our values for us, and that is a terrible mistake. In the world of commercialism, a good person is someone who consumes without question, and works to support the framework of the corporate capitalist state.
Humanity becomes a commodity to buy and sell, a set of paint-by-numbers pieces that snap in place and create a pre-formed notion of just what makes us good and bad, and that is dangerous for all of us, because a capitalist state does not look out for your well being, only your consent, and it will gain that consent by hook or by crook, especially by conditioning your mind to accept their word as authority, which you should not do.
You might ask me what authority I have, and honestly? Only my own authority as an autonomous person with my own perceptions to guide me, but for me it is enough. I am not asking you to follow me, or obey me without question, only that you stop and think about yourself, and what you need, not what you’re being told that you need by those who are solely interested in exploiting you for their own gain.
You are more than the sum of your parts, you’re more than your work, and you’re more than your money. Value does not begin and end with your exploitation for commercial application. See, that is the root of the system. Your value is tied to what you can do to enrich these people, rather than what value you have as a human being just existing. What they can draw from you, what they can steal from you, that is the goal. They’ll mask it as “good,” but the only good involved is the good for their bottom line.
“Good” is completely arbitrary in that respect, because a corporation will always define good by what works best for them and their investors. What happens to you is of no consequence, save that it all benefits the company in the end. This is how our society currently works. It is skewed, it is so skewed in favor of the top percentage of the wealthy, and we’re all paying for it because it is taking our genuine self-worth, and replacing it with a facsimile, an ersatz heart to guide you to joyless happiness, empty fullness, and emotionless passion.
I implore you to look deep inside of yourself, and realize that you don’t need any of that to know that you are good. You don’t need the state, you don’t need the justice system, you don’t need the media, you don’t need commercials, or corporate interests, none of that tells you who YOU are. NONE of it. The best they can do is a pale imitation of humanity, and you are more than that, my friends, you’re the genuine article. YOU make the decision regarding your self-worth.
I love you for who you are, not what you can do for me. I will not exploit you. Rather, I’d prefer you stand with me, eye to eye, in the name of humanity, and accept that you can be a good person free of the judgment of others and their interests.
You have value. You have worth. You are loved.
Amaris.