Over the holidays, I have been asking friends and acquaintances about what is necessary to live well. I get many of the usual answers: health, money, purpose in life, education, and political freedom, among others. It struck me that the tone of most responses suggested a causal relationship between one’s own initiative (i.e., one’s autonomy, agency, and authority), and the conditions that our specific culture or society provides. While I did not disagree with most observations suggested to me, I was also struck that two very big factors were entirely ignored – the health of our one-and-only planet, and luck. It also seemed to me that a kind of democratic spirit in their responses elevated tertiary conditions (e. g., political freedom) and under-estimated more critical ones (e. g., education).
1. The Health of Our Planet – It seems to me that lately we have responded to this absolutely fundamental condition to “well-being” in three ways. First, many persons feel exhausted and defeated after decades of outrage over the incapacity of our governments and societies to attempt even modest responses to climate change. Secondly, many remain in denial, for one bad reason or another. Thirdly, and most absurdly, some seem to believe that we will find a new planet to colonize. These folks might as well be lumped in with the deniers.
Even if we are alarmed by what is occurring, the health-of-our-planet issue clearly suggests just how limited human agency is, whether we are thinking of ourselves as individuals, or in the collective sense of societies. Perhaps this is why we do so little, or make such small, gratuitous efforts (e. g., buying an electric car), in the face of possible extinction. We cannot face how limited our authority is, or how “un-special” we are as a species.
2. Luck – We used to speak of good fortune or luck more frequently in the past. The Greeks, after all, centered their whole conceptualization of the cosmos on “fate,” although they also felt human beings need not invite bad fortune by acting with hubris or stupidity. Until very recent times, most of us were humbled by the chance good fortune we had received. In my own case, I would have to say that most of my good fortune (and I have had a lot of it) was the consequence of the convergence of many lucky circumstances. That is, I inherited good genes and health; I was lucky to be born at a time, and in a place, where democratic, and relatively inexpensive, education had reached its zenith; I was lucky to marry a person who supported and aided and encouraged me; I was lucky to get one of the last university teaching positions in my field, and so on.
Luck is not a popular concept in our aggressive ideological age. To be humble when reflecting on one’s good fortune is anathema to an age that rewards “attitude,” bravado and brash self-assertion, and, social and economic “bullying.” One “makes one’s own luck” is the modern, and often false, mantra (especially, it appears, of some CEOs). To admit luck, good or bad, as a fundamental quality to our well-being means that those of us who are wealthy have no way to justify our wealth. Charity is the buy off for good luck; it is the action that reveals how, beneath it all, we know we are lucky in comparison to someone else. Unfortunately, charity can also act like Catholic confession; we often like to think it can absolve us of taking further social and political action and reform.
3. Education – A person can be poor or lack good health, but if they are educated to their abilities their well-being will be vastly improved. Obviously, if a person is terminally or perhaps even chronically ill, health may claim a superior place above education, at least until one is healthy again. In short, I do not agree with the slogan: “if you have your health you have everything.” For most of us, however, education at all levels is the most important element which human beings can control and improve. There are corollaries to this axiom. First, everyone needs education that is available and affordable for all. In other words, equality of opportunity in education is essential, and in our society, this means public education. Secondly, vocational education, while a useful secondary consequence of real learning, is not real education for the larger, more important, purposes of creating better human beings, better citizens, and persons who can think rationally and express themselves creatively. Thirdly, education must be perceived individually and collectively as something that occurs lifelong. With good education for all, the richness of life is accomplished, and things like good government, liberty, and social human decency will follow.
4. A “Modest Competence” – Having a “modest competence” is, in large part, a mere consequence of living on a planet that remains beneficent, of the good luck inherent in one’s person or society, and a culture in which equal education is secured. But it is also a consequence of public goals and private beliefs. I like to use the 18th century phrase – “modest competence” – because it is so much more inclusive than saying “a good income” or “money.” A “modest competence” implies economic resources that keep one out of poverty. It is revealing that most countries measure economic poverty as a falling below a percentage of median personal or family income. In other words, poverty is made relative, recognizing that the poor are not a fixed social class but are persons who, through their circumstances, been deprived of the full means to live life fully. By contrast, the U. S. measures poverty as an absolute number, and, the right-wing Heritage Foundation goes further and measures poverty by how many material “amenities” a person or family have. This latter means of measuring suggests that all matters of poverty should be measured in terms of levels of material acquisition and consumption alone.
A “modest competence,” however, also implies a set of skills or abilities that make one free from the most demeaning human labor, and of being free of slavery. And, it can be seen as a measure of personal autonomy and agency in general as well as the capacity to be competent in being a contributing member of society.
Undoubtedly, almost all of you who read this will disagree with at least some of my list, and likely some of my conclusions. Given my list, however, I am bothered first by how puny our attempts have been, and apparently will continue to be, in regard to really big issues, like climate change. It makes me worry that we are simply not terribly competent as a species. Secondly, I am appalled at how little true humility and true charity we feel and express as a consequence of the luck factor. This suggests to me that we are not terribly competent as a species but believe we are. Thirdly, our abandonment of real education at almost every level draws me toward the conclusion that we are not terribly competent as a species, and do not give a damn if we are not. And, finally, our inattention to establishing a “modest competence” for all suggests to me that we are not terribly competent as a species, and are filled with disrespect for others and a general self-loathing of the human condition. Yet, despite all of my concerns about the limits of human intelligence and goodness, we can look at our current condition as so bad that there is no way but up. In fact, I do believe that we are at least on the cusp at addressing some of the matters that would improve our collective well-being.
