FINDING THE COMMON GOOD

Humans, it’s been a tall order, the idea, the common good, is there a common good? I thought about what’s funny, humor and the human condition, and what’s funny has a human aspect, something all humans would see as funny, and then there’s the cultural aspect of funny. Funny is both universal, everybody laughs, and cultural, some people get the joke.

The common good is like that, it’s both universal and culture specific, and here’s a wrinkle I thought about this AM. The common good for Elon Musk and Trump’s legion of billionaires, and Trump, their concept of the common good is their common good. What’s good for Elon Musk or Jeff Besos, is good for them, their bottom lines, their stakes, their investments, where the action is for their self interest. What will be the common good for the next Congressional budget in the Trump administration, take a guess.

The common good in America has been it’s democracy, with its checks and balances, so that power is spread around, in the society, community values vary, while human rights are the same, guaranteed by a social contract, the Constitution.

Our politics are our supposed search for a common good through our democratic processes. FDR had his dollar a day rich during the depression, Trump has his titans of Wall Street in his administration, pursuing what the common good is for them.

The common good and democracy, that’s where America’s at, finding a common good in this moment with the rich calling the shots, do these corporate titans care about the common man or the bottom line, next years Congressional budget will address that issue.

12/7/24

Pearl Harbor Day