The good person and the good life
 

Hejinian 27: "The good of the good life is of several, sometimes incompatible sorts: on the one hand, the good of happiness--consciousness of pleasure, experience of aesthetic or spritiual intensity, a sense of wellbeing, consciousness of love--and, on the other hand, the good of fulfilled obligations: work, dutifulness, accomplishment, productivity, good citizenship. The latter are predicates of the good person; the former those of the good life. They coexist but are often incompatible."
 
27-8: "[W]ith the spread of what one might somewhat glibly call capitalocracy [...] emphasis has shifted from admirtation and idealization of the good life to pressures on the individual to conform to a model of the good person, with goodness here appropariated to norms of dutifulness and productivuty rather than to the generosities and eccentricities of delight"
 
We are forced into "grim forms of dutifulness, even as the happier forms of 'dutifulness' (caring about one another, keeping a promise, lending a hand) seem increasingly rare."

> from Lyn Hejinian's Allegorical Moments: Call to the Everyday (2023)

> tagged with #work, #happiness, #pleasure

> created Nov 15, 2024 at 7:54:46 AM


> part of unfinished everything


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unfinished everything is an original work / ongoing project (1997-present) by jeremy p. bushnell

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