I still remember what one Swedish student said in 2008 after a pick-up game of basketball at the Linköping University gym. He told my friend Ryan Urbano, “have a good life.” I think that’s what we all want. But everything takes time. But beyond any of your personal feats, there’s always a real sense of longing for something more. Rise above self. Help others. Help your siblings get a degree. Pay for the school of your future children’s yayas. Be a good human being always, that is important.
How, a person should never waver against any criticism. Fight evil. A man fails not because he doesn’t have what it takes. Sometimes, if you don’t do anything about all that is bad around you, you get stuck in a corner not knowing what to do. Listen carefully to what others say. There’s no such thing as brilliance when it comes to a good idea. It can always come from anyone. Always listen to old wisdom. Trust your parents when they say that what you are doing is not right. Live simply, but do not aspire to be a martyr in this life.
Just do what you need to do. You get to be disliked a lot when you are up there. People don’t realize that it does not mean a thing because you have been at the bottom before. They don’t know your story, that’s all. You are still in the world, battling inner demons, every single day, not calm, but has remained defiant for you believe that there’s always something good in this life in spite of everything. Live a life of purpose, whatever that means. There’s no need to make it full. Happiness can only be found if you find your purpose in life. It is the finality of moral action.
But what does the good life mean? For Aristotle, it is about “living well”. The Greeks call it eudaimonia. Translated into the political. It is about living in a society in which there is fairness in the ways men and women deal with each other with the hope of realizing their potentials to the fullest extent. It is a society where good institutions are functioning in order to serve the people. Translated into our time, this means people enjoying their basic rights and having every opportunity to be able to attain or achieve such a life in a just, equal, and democratic society. Basically, it refers to a life that is free, hence, one that is truly worth living.
However, one needs to expound on the matter in a highly global environment. Happiness or even the good life does not have a monological meaning. To suggest that it does is the reason why there is so much conflict in the world. If people insist on Western ideals and ergo, impose their individualistic type of morality, they are not preaching democracy. They are taking away from people their sense of identity. Know that the same Western ideals of autonomy were simply used to subjugate many nations and millions of people, with the sole aim of advancing the selfish interests of the global hegemonic order, but presented in disguise, telling the martyrs of Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, that the American model is the best, not their own. Freedom is rooted in solidarity, history, and culture. Hence, it is the very soul of a nation.
The good life, however, does not fall from the sky. You have to fight for it. This is because we do not actually live in a just world. Some people parade themselves as the beacon of hope in this world and in this life, but in truth, they are part of an unjust system that has undermined the basic freedoms of people by perpetuating social and economic injustices, all in the name of control and domination, indeed, by means of the power of the market to determine the worth of humans. Those who preach human freedom should check their own conscience. The one who tells you that you are a free human being – that person in front of you – is actually the same monster who is making the world unfree.
