Tapsearch Com EditorCommon Good is uncommon
February 29th 2008 00:20
I wanted to start a study today about the Common Good but rather chose to ramble on about it for awhile setting up my brain for a more formal study.
In our times the Common Good has been stripped of its meaning. After all democracies are ruled by the numbers. The Common Good is not about numbers but people compare it to the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number. Rousseau said the masses of individuals can tell us what is right and wrong. However the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number can add up to only two versus a hundred single choices. The Common Good can be numbers but most of the time it is something aside from numbers. We all know a whole population can choose something wrong. There would not be any wars if this one not true.
Rousseau also said everyone is born free. Tell that to a baby that is aborted. We obviously know power rules the game in most cases. Freedom of choice especially when we put matter before personality is ultimately the power of one individual over another. This plays out in almost everything we do. Most of the time it is controlled violence like in football. It does not take us very long to know we are very weak material beings where the person in us is knows we are bound by material matter. By the age of reason, we know we are terminal subject to death. Somewhere in it all of this is our soul which we know exists and is eternal but can not locate easily. The inner self is a world of its own where there is something called a conscience ruling our mmoral equilibrium. The morning after, the young guy tells the girl after a night of booze and rocking - that's was not really me. However the statement does not change the damage to the souls involved.
We also talk about separation of Church and State but did you ever notice no one can tell us where the line of departure is between the two. Ethics and morality are expounded but any discussion about the origin of either is blocked. We know the we need to cross the line leading to religion but there are too many short-circuits to get anything in the proper order of things. The Constitution has been interpreted in our modern times much differently than it was back at the time when it was written. The original meaning was more centered on the state keeping its nose out of religion. Today it seems to be the other way around.
I came across this saying which seems to sum up the problem - God is not a hobby to leave at home when we go to work. I like this saying because my mission is to somehow bring the monastery to the streets. G.K. Chesterson said a society is converted by the person who contradicts it the most. After all is said and done inside or outside of religion we know the biblical saying - do unto others as you would want them to do to you - is not just something spiritual but it is pragmatism at its best. God say love is first and that perhaps where the Common Good should start. I will work on these thoughts for a time and get back to you in a more studied approach about the Common Good. God knows we need it now in our mixed up world.
Here is a summary of some of my articles as an advocate for workers dignity in the workday
In our times the Common Good has been stripped of its meaning. After all democracies are ruled by the numbers. The Common Good is not about numbers but people compare it to the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number. Rousseau said the masses of individuals can tell us what is right and wrong. However the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number can add up to only two versus a hundred single choices. The Common Good can be numbers but most of the time it is something aside from numbers. We all know a whole population can choose something wrong. There would not be any wars if this one not true.
Rousseau also said everyone is born free. Tell that to a baby that is aborted. We obviously know power rules the game in most cases. Freedom of choice especially when we put matter before personality is ultimately the power of one individual over another. This plays out in almost everything we do. Most of the time it is controlled violence like in football. It does not take us very long to know we are very weak material beings where the person in us is knows we are bound by material matter. By the age of reason, we know we are terminal subject to death. Somewhere in it all of this is our soul which we know exists and is eternal but can not locate easily. The inner self is a world of its own where there is something called a conscience ruling our mmoral equilibrium. The morning after, the young guy tells the girl after a night of booze and rocking - that's was not really me. However the statement does not change the damage to the souls involved.
We also talk about separation of Church and State but did you ever notice no one can tell us where the line of departure is between the two. Ethics and morality are expounded but any discussion about the origin of either is blocked. We know the we need to cross the line leading to religion but there are too many short-circuits to get anything in the proper order of things. The Constitution has been interpreted in our modern times much differently than it was back at the time when it was written. The original meaning was more centered on the state keeping its nose out of religion. Today it seems to be the other way around.
I came across this saying which seems to sum up the problem - God is not a hobby to leave at home when we go to work. I like this saying because my mission is to somehow bring the monastery to the streets. G.K. Chesterson said a society is converted by the person who contradicts it the most. After all is said and done inside or outside of religion we know the biblical saying - do unto others as you would want them to do to you - is not just something spiritual but it is pragmatism at its best. God say love is first and that perhaps where the Common Good should start. I will work on these thoughts for a time and get back to you in a more studied approach about the Common Good. God knows we need it now in our mixed up world.
Here is a summary of some of my articles as an advocate for workers dignity in the workday
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