Love and courage may be the most important ideas in philosophy because they capture the essence of life, both in terms of what it's all about and how hard you have to work to get there. I want you to use this article as a chance to think about these ideas. And may you accept them with your whole being to live a better life.
Many people don't see work as a rewarding way to do good. Instead, they see it as a necessary evil that they would gladly give up if they won or inherited a lot of money. It's just a way to make a living, a necessary chore. It means that the paycheck doesn't matter or isn't very important in terms of how it helps the community.
You can tell that they are cold and calculating. People who do things for others out of the goodness of their hearts are kind, but they are just going through the motions. In places where employees are expected to be polite, at best, their behaviour is perfect, even if it is fake. "Can I help in any way? Here you are. Is there going to be more? Thanks a lot "There is no real effort to please, just a bland show of politeness and efficiency that follows a set of rules and leaves you feeling as uninterested as a bowl of plain noodles. They do the bare minimum to keep their jobs and are happy to do nothing else as long as they still get paid. They never take a day off. When their workday is over, they leave as soon as possible, before the first second of the next hour has passed. They can't wait for their time off and dream of being on vacation all the time, as if relaxation were the key to happiness.
What about the pride of being useful, which is the opposite of this lightheartedness? What about love, which is the desire to live in a way that helps other people? This desire grows out of being thankful, with the goal of being worthy. I start with the idea that people who like living in society and have a positive attitude and a generally good social environment are more likely to love each other. To sum it up, the more they love life and the people in it, the more they love other people.
Now, it's one thing to feel this love. It's quite another to act on it, which takes courage. In fact, a lack of courage would not only stop this love from happening, but it would also likely cause it to end in order to keep from being ashamed. The mind is a double-edged sword that can cut its way into or out of the truth by making true statements or making arguments that aren't true. Love can be denied even when there are good reasons to love. So, courage is an important part of a strong character, and without it, love can't grow as an emotion or as an action. Love has been killed or slowed down by laziness and fear, but the dignity that comes from loving is just a potential bloom. May people learn to be brave! I hate to think that the soul has the potential to be so beautiful but can still be immature, morally stunted, and as ugly as a shrivelled growth that a hardworking gardener could have turned into a beautiful rose.
On second thought, courage should be valued more than any other virtue because it is the key to developing all the others. It is not enough of a reason, though. It can't do anything on its own, but everything needs it. Courage is the force that can raise life to joy, joy to love, and love to dignity, as long as people want to reach these difficult heights, even though they are always tempted to take the easy and low route. There are two sides to this nature. People will always be torn between their high goals and their low desires. Their moral status, whether they are admirable or pitiful, is based on whether they follow these goals or give in to these temptations.
It's true that the more bad things happen to you, the harder it is to live a courageous and honourable life. It's not surprising that children who grow up in bad situations often have bad attitudes and behaviours as adults, like low self-esteem and not doing well in school, resentment and aggression, alcoholism and drug addiction, homelessness, and crime, among other things. Other people in society are worried, upset, hurt, or turned off by these attitudes and actions, which is a terrible thing. It's clear that the problem is cancerous. I hope that in the future, there will be better ways for society to help these children find happiness and worthiness. Benefactions, family allowances, subsidised housing, free health care and schooling, and scholarships are all current solutions that rely on private charities or government policies and call for more creativity and generosity to make them better.
Considering how bad it is for society when children of poverty grow up to be failures, misfits, or criminals, I feel compelled to point out that this act of kindness is based on utilitarianism. As much as these kids make people feel sorry for them, they also make people worry about what might happen to them. Their well-being is actively looked out for, both for their own sake and for the sake of society as a whole, which has a lot riding on it. Also, employers who care about their employees and their business will always give their employees the best working conditions possible. Most of the time, these employees are happy and grateful, which makes them work harder and stay with the company longer. Good spirit is good for business.
Some people want everyone to have the same chances in life. Will this dream become true one day? Almost everywhere in the world, there is a difference between people who are born lucky and those who are not. Is it too late to help? I think so, but I'm also a firm believer in change. Even the most generous welfare state couldn't get rid of this inequality. It could only make it less severe.
What if it turned to communism to try to make things more equal? History shows that a communist government would be bad for the economy and for people's minds in the long run. A centralised government forcing everyone to get the same amount of resources, no matter what they each do for the common good, is a totalitarian idea that can't work. In a word, it makes no sense. On the other hand, democratic societies have a lot of problems, but they are the best we have so far. They are based on freedom, talent, luck, and merit, and they have a safety net for people who have fallen off the high wire of health and success. Things just have to get better. The way things are now is a way to get to better times.
Forget about perfection, which is dangerous and flawed in the end: it's just an illusion. No matter how bright the future may be, there will always be shadows. Adults who aren't healthy, smart, successful, happy, or kind will continue to have kids. Even if there are better ways to help these kids, they will still have a hard childhood because they won't have the same material and spiritual advantages as other kids. Like the people who came before them, they will have to face the challenge of becoming the opposite of their parents: adults who are healthy, wise, happy, successful, and kind. Only the strong will be able to win. Only they will understand how divine justice balances out the problem of inequality: the less luck someone has at the beginning of their life, the more merit they have at the end of it if they do well. This rule applies everywhere and at any time, so it can be used right now. May the people we help make us proud as they rise above their troubles to become our heroes.
This win against all odds is a big surprise. I can think of another extreme that is as sad as the first one is brave. Contrary to what you might think, some people born to kind and wealthy parents turn out to be unhappy. They are so immature and weak-willed that all they want to do is play and sleep. They are so self-centered and rude that it's shocking. Did they start out with a weak personality? Did their parents kill them by being too nice to them and spoiling them? Is that why they don't have a heart?
