ARE YOU GOOD?
Art : FISHING
By Sakuan.
Are you a good person, what does it mean to be a good person, can you give yourself that title based on things you’ve done or haven’t done? What does it take to be a good person, and who has the right to give you that title. I just asked myself that this morning and the answer was not as clear cut as I would’ve thought it would be or as I would have liked it to be the more I looked deeper into the question. First thing first before I proceed there’s something that’s sad to say but the reality of things is that “your actions can’t make everybody happy.”
Am I a good person, well that question is subjective and so is the answer to it, you can’t give yourself that title, other people have to give you that title, in my opinion. Other people have to do it because they’re the ones who have to deal with you, they’re the ones who have to tolerate your existence, you exist in an ecosystem where your actions are what defines you, we are lucky in that sense since we have the ability to control our actions in most situations. On the other hand, since we have the ability to feel and have emotions about different things our actions tend to be subjective based on our environments, and mostly based on feelings. Feelings make us do stupid things, feelings make us do brave things, feelings make us do smart things, feelings are feelings at the end of the day, they aren’t tangible but cut way deeper into the heart than a sword could ever do.
Let me explain, am I a good person, well that’s a tricky one. In a racist person's eyes, I’m automatically a bad person because of my skin color, in a person who hates people of my sex or gender, I’m automatically a bad person to them, in a person of a different status than I, if they have resentment towards people of my status for whatever reason then to them I’m automatically a bad person: I’ve seen people who hate other people solely because they are millionaires or billionaires, and it’s sad, I’ve seen people hate large cooperations because to them they already have this thought that big cooperations are bad, to some extent that’s rightfully so but that always begs the question is that really fair, is that a way to live one’s life, is it healthy for you to hate something that doesn’t affect you in any way religiously? Is it healthy to hate on a celebrity solely because they’re a celebrity, is it okay to hate someone based on how successful they are? Where does the hate stem from? Is it controllable, where is empathy when you need it, what makes a person say they’d rather be unhappy in a Lamborghini than happy in their lives right now. Why do people chase over success, is it a human thing to always strive to be successful? Why is success the go-to for the majority of people in the world, everyone always talks about it like it’s the end all be all.
Success, I want it, you want it, we want it. Am I a good person for wanting it, well I don’t know but I know I’m a normal person for wanting it. Am I a good person in general? You tell me…
Currently reading [God is Not One by Stephen Prothero]
