‘A GOOD LIFE’
CAERS SUBSTACK ARTICLE #11
The band ‘Beachfires’ has an entertaining tune titled ‘A Good Life’ which proclaims that we all deserve a good life. It’s hard to argue with that sentiment, and that, along with its catchy tune, probably explain why it is easy to find yourself singing it, especially when things are going well for you.
It is estimated that nearly 70 billion people have been born on this planet, and no doubt there were some who experienced a good life. But it is likely safe to say that they may have been in the minority. That is supported by the estimation that almost one third of us never survived to adulthood; those unfortunates had neither a long life nor a good life. Much of this sad reality relates to conditions beyond human control, but of course not all of it. Likely a lot of those early deaths and not-so-good lives were caused directly or indirectly by actions taken by fellow humans, and many of those actions could have been avoided or modified to yield better results.
Is it possible that having a good life was not sufficiently prioritized and that’s why so many missed out? Or could it have been that perhaps having a good life was too highly prioritized? In other words, did the pursuit of having the good life result in success for a lucky few but many more not attaining it at all?
If so, is that because we focus too much on ‘having a good life’ than ‘living a good life’? Had humans focused more on the latter than the former, how different would those billions of lives have been? And how different would our world be today?
The essence of ethics is the question: how should we treat one another (and all living things on Mother Earth)? In many ways it therefore focuses on what it means to ‘live a good life’, not only on ‘having a good life’. The two of course are intimately connected, because part of living a good life does necessitate understanding the concept of having a good life, but it also requires caring about obtaining that for all living things, not just oneself.
Have we focused enough on living a good life during the pandemic, or have we obsessed too much about having and maintaining a good life? Have the authorities, and many of us, been sufficiently concerned with the quality of the lives of all others in our society, or only with a select few, especially ourselves? Was the question about what constitutes living a good life even in the conversation, or was the focus simply on making sure we had a good life by any means necessary, even if others suffered in the process? Could the growing divisiveness in our society be related to this?
There are many lessons to learn from the pandemic, and many of the most important revolve around learning more about ourselves. We might want to start by reflecting on what it means to live a good life. Because when we don’t, as has been true throughout so much of human history, too many of us will miss out on having a good life.
J. Barry Engelhardt MD (retired) MHSc (bioethics)
CAERS Health Intake Facilitator