THE BETTER GOOD
Our country is in a mess. What the heck is going on? We are swimming around in abysmal conditions without any clear understanding of why or how we got here. It is like we are in a battle, the battle of bad v good, but we’ve forgotten what good looks like. Even our explanations seem to have an edge to them.
There is a struggle going on although it’s not a new one. This one includes deception and misinformation. It is hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. There is a lot of crossover. In my skepticism I think “The pot is calling the kettle black.” Such is my disillusionment.
Let’s take a closer look.
The Way of Bad
The advantage the bad has is that it leads with lies. The lies often are couched in misleading lingo. What may sound plausible or positive often has a dark side. People don’t want to unmask it because that would expose the true state of things.
One misleading lie is that the government is the cure to what ails us.
Not so.
The people and their beliefs are the cure to what ails us.
The government is a vehicle to serve us, but it cannot be the cure because it functions at the mercy of its laws and its people. A government is a structure, one that can be strong and life-giving or compromised and corrupt.
The thing is, evil comes on many levels when good is disregarded.
The Way of Good
The advantage the good has is that it leads with truth. Let’s take the most basic truth of all, that there is intrinsic value in every life. We all know this is true. To deny this is to say one life matters more than another life, which gives superiority to one over the other. We also know that good will do good, which is a form of doing right. It is the ‘better good’, ‘best interest’, ‘higher ground’ of the end result. Purity of thought and action will bring goodness and richness to our lives and world because it promotes what is helpful and best as it exposes what harms and denigrates.
We are in a battle, whether we realize it or not. The battle is for our minds–what we think, believe, and then embrace. It is good to ponder this instead of remaining oblivious. People and organizations have lied to us…even in educational systems, in government systems, in religious institutions, and in families (they may not have realized the lie-believed).
A way to unmask the lies we have believed is to unravel the thread until you get to the root of the matter. What is its inner truth, its true make-up? What is its consequence? How does it play out?
Our society is in trouble because it fails to consider the bigger picture, that ideas become realities, some for the better good and some for utter harm. To ignore this is to say good is bad and bad is good, as the lies take over and destroy us as a society. It becomes a cesspool of instability because it has no rock on which to stand.
The Way of The Better Good
We can unmask the lies we have believed as a society. Love is the measuring device. The place to begin is with what we care about. What do we love? Are we loving in the way we treat the unborn, the people with developmental challenges, the environment, the various races, religions, and cultures? Are we respecting of people we philosophically disagree with? Are we allowing our love to inform our moral choices and the words we choose to say about and to other people? Is our self-love destroying us? Do we see beyond the end of our nose? Are we hateful or hate-filled, not caring who it hurts?
Love that is true love will do the right thing, always. Sometimes we mistake something for love when it really is pride, arrogance, or ego (even self-righteousness, when we think we are the only ones who are right and good). It takes a great deal of introspection and clarity to see truth as it stands alone.
For me, this includes God’s help. But even God can be misunderstood if we have a mindset that misinforms us about His ways. It helps to ask God to reveal our individual areas of blindness, and we all have them. For example, we may think we are are not prejudiced, but God will show us where we are prejudiced, where we are dark in our understanding and beliefs. Then it is up to us to change our views. Confusion will dissipate and the better good will prevail.
The whole thing is complicated. Yet it is simple, too. Do what is right and good according to the inner values of right and good, which promote goodness and value to all living things. Live out The Golden Rule, and you will be on the right path.
The choice rests with us.
Who we are and who we will become boils down to our belief system. Constant blaming of others is a form of scapegoating. It deflects from us and our duty to respond and act in appropriate ways. Those times when we choose to be strong, brave, honest, and true, when we choose to treat people with dignity, kindness, and substance rather than with arrogance, self-centeredness, or haughtiness, are when we will make steps toward living life the better good. This past decade of coarseness in our country, as Mark Shields said on the PBS NewsHour, will lessen as we begin to shift in a more positive direction towards the reclaiming of best interest in a civil society. Maybe we will quit the mudslinging and bring back gracious discourse.
Truth talk is also a necessary starting point.
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