Living The Good Life

Do you want to live a good life?

You are not alone. 

As a philosopher by nature and training, I have studied the question of the good life, and I have a duty to help people understand how they can live a good life.

Thanks to indoctrination by “authorities” appointed by tyrants who profit from the people being ignorant of their own Conscience and the objective difference between good and evil, right and wrong, many people believe that good and evil, right and wrong are “relative,” a position known as moral relativism. 

If this was so, there would be no such thing as an objectively good life.  Indeed, this is what many modern authorities teach: "Its all good."  They would have you believe that no matter how you live, you can call your life a good life.

In Reality, the great philosophers of all time have proven that for humans, moral good and evil, right and wrong are as objective as true and false in mathematics. Not all lifestyle choices are objectively good, and the doctrine of moral relativism is nothing but a weapon tyrants are using to make people weak, stupid and docile slaves to their vices and the State. 

The truth will set you free...if you choose it. 

Good vs Evil

To live a good life, you need to understand the objective meanings of "good" and "evil."

It is no mistake that we use the word “right” as a synonym for both true and moral.  The word is derived from the Latin rectus which means “straight, aligned, right.”  Most basically, it means aligned with Reality.  Right action arises from knowledge of Reality, which is good or moral because it promotes life (survival, health, fitness, accumulation of adequate wealth and valid knowledge, and reproduction).  

The word “wrong” is derived from the Proto-Germanic wrang which means “crooked, wry, twisted.”  In other words, “wrong” means not aligned with Reality.  That’s why it is a synonym for false – “2 + 2 = 3” is wrong because it is false.  Wrong action arises from ignorance of Reality, which is bad or immoral because it undermines life (survival, health, fitness, and reproduction).  That is why the word evil – live spelled backwards – means harmful, bad, and immoral.

Building the Good Life

If you want to live the good life, you need to build make the following four aims the foundation of your life:

  1. Virtue via alignment with logos, and fulfillment of social and moral duties; 
  2. Wealth and prosperity acquired in alignment with logos ;
  3. Enjoyment of good things, without attachment, in alignment with logos;
  4. Liberation from a) ignorance and bondage through knowledge of and communion with the Ultimate Reality, GOD, and b) political tyranny.

You need virtue to have a good life.

The term "virtue" comes from the Latin roots vir  (=man) and virtutem which means: manliness, valor, bravery, courage, excellence, worthiness, high character, moral strength, and goodness.  

Logos is the Greek word for Natural Law (dharma in Sanskrit).  It is the intrinsic order of the Universe, established by the Creator; it emanates from and links all creatures with the One Source, Supreme Power and Ground of the Universe, to which mankind refers with various words, such as GOD, BRAHMAN, TAO, ALLAH, etc.  

Just as a surfer gains power from aligning himself with the ocean wave more powerful that himself, and the sailor gains power from aligning himself with the wind, we gain strength by alignment with the Supreme Power, by aligning our will with logos/dharma, the will of GOD.  

Thus, genuine virtue arises from conscious alignment of your thoughts, words and deeds with logos, even at the expense of one's ego or personal profit/pleasure.  

Virtue consists of aligning your will with logos, the will of GOD.

This means that to live a good life you must fulfill natural, social and moral obligations through development of the interests, talents and gifts you have received from Providence at birth.  

You have a duty to identify and develop your talents and gifts and use them productively to add value to your family and community.  This is a duty not only to your community but also to yourself.  Your own happiness depends on finding and developing your talents and gifts and using them to help others.

All people have common obligations and duties necessary for sustaining health and strength of self, family, tribe, and nation. These include both negative and positive obligations. 

A negative obligation or duty requires avoidance of actions that harm oneself or others.  The principle forms of wrong action are all violations of private property rights, and types of theft.  Every one has negative duties pertaining to private property,  including obligations to refrain from the following crimes:

  • Taking life, such as murder
  • Taking liberty, such as threat, coercion or enslavement
  • Taking property, such as stealing, robbery, or burglary
  • Taking truth or confidence, such as lying or fraud
  • Taking privacy, known as trespass, and including sexual trespass, known as rape
  • Unjustly taking reputation, known as libel or defamation

Everyone also has a duty to live in chastity.  Sexual vice, perversion, sodomy and promiscuity produce a myriad of physical and mental disorders and diseases.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9  

"Sexual liberation" and "feminism" poison the relationship between man and woman, which undermines the natural nuclear family (man+woman+biological children of those parents), the fundamental building block of society.  All children, male and female, need both biological father and biological mother present for healthy physical and mental development.  As I discussed in The Hypercarnivore Diet, statistically speaking, children raised by two biological parents (male+female) maintaining a stable marriage run the lowest risk of physical, mental, or moral disorder, neglect, abuse or violence; are by far most likely to perform well in sports, social and academic development; and are healthier, happier, smarter, more capable, and more self-confident, as compared to any other caregiver arrangement.10 , 11 

Monogamy is good because it is objectively superior to polygamy or polyandry (which are evil). Monogamy reduces destructive intrasexual competition, and reduces the size of the pool of unmarried men, which reduces prevalence of crime. It also improve economic productivity (wealth) by shifting male efforts from seeking wives to investing in family and children. By increasing the genetic relatedness within households, monogamy reduces rates of child neglect, abuse, accidental death and homicide.11  

Without healthy, monogamous traditional families, people become physically and mentally weak, degenerate and sick, unable to uphold virtues necessary for orderly society and achieve the good life.  In particular, absence of a strong and moral father damages children, especially boys.

Everyone is also subject to positive duties that benefit others.  For a simple example, everyone has a duty to eat well and perform exercise to sustain health and strength so that you do not become a burden to but a support for others, and also a duty to engage in productive labor to produce goods to support oneself and family dependent upon you.  

Beyond these common obligations and duties are specific obligations or duties that vary among individuals depending on age, aptitudes (talents), abilities and stations in life and society at any given time.  For example if physicians, carpenters, teachers, coaches and chefs all have duties unique to their professions.  

To live an objectively good life, know thy self and the moral logos, and fulfill your duties to yourself, family, tribe and nation. 

You need adequate wealth to have a good life.

To live an objectively good life you need to acquire adequate wealth to support health, and strength of your self, family, tribe and nation, through productive labor in alignment with the Natural Law (logos/dharma).

Adequate material wealth is absolutely necessary for full moral and spiritual progress.  People mired in illness, weakness and poverty can't devote themselves to a spiritual life of virtue, reason and contemplation.  

However, material prosperity is not an end in itself.  Since all material things are finite and corruptible, no amount of material wealth beyond meeting basic needs  can satisfy us.  In fact, attachment to wealth keeps us in a state of perpetual poverty, a psychological hell of greed for more and fear of losing what we have.   This is why Jesus of Nazareth said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a "rich" man to enter the kingdom of heaven (i.e. peace of mind), and the Tao Te Ching (the second-most read book in the world, behind the Bible) we find:

Name or person, which is nearer?

Person or property, which is dearer?

Gain or loss, which is drearier?

Many loves entail great costs, 

Many riches entail heavy losses.

Know contentment and you shall not be disgraced,

Know satisfaction and you shall not be imperiled; then you will long endure. 12

In another chapter of the Tao, the Old Master warns: 

No guilt is greater than giving in to desire, 

No disaster is greater than discontent, 

No crime is more grievous than the desire for gain.13

You need enjoyment to have a good life.

Wealth is only a means to satisfaction of material needs and wholesome pleasures that promote health and strength.  Moderate pleasure in accord with logos is a proper goal of the good life.

This means one should use lawfully acquired wealth to enjoy food, drink, marriage, home, family, friendship, arts, and Nature's awesome beauty in so far as these align with and support a virtuous life.

You need freedom for a good life

A good life is characterized by inner freedom, and in the best possible life you also enjoy outer freedom.  But freedom from what?

We are in essence rational and spiritual beings consisting of infinite, eternal, immortal awareness.  However, due to ignorance of our True Nature, we identify with and attach ourselves to finite and perishable things, including body, mind, ego and material possessions. Consequently, we suffer fear, sorrow and misery when we inevitably lose these things.

We can free ourselves from the tyranny of the finite by seeking knowledge of and communion with the Good, True, and Beautiful Ultimate Reality, the Infinite One.  We can know the Infinite because we are in It and It is in us.

Logic (logos) reveals that the Infinite and Absolute One is Awareness.  No one can deny or doubt Its Presence.  If you deny or doubt Its Presence, you simply affirm Its Presence, because no denial or doubt can occur without the Presence of Awareness.    

Moreover, Awareness enables us to see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and move, but Itself has no shape, color, sound, odor, texture or any other sensible characteristic.  If you disbelieve, try yourself to describe the shape, color, sound, odor, or texture of Awareness.  You will fail.  

Just as your finger tip cannot touch itself, and your eye cannot turn to look at itself, Awareness is the Seer which cannot be seen, the Hearer which cannot be heard, the Taster which cannot be tasted, the Toucher which cannot be touched, the Smeller which has no fragrance.  Everything that exists, exists in Reality, which is Infinite Awareness.  I know this because it is logically impossible to provide evidence for the existence of any thing existing outside the domain of Awareness.  

Temporal (political) freedom can be realized only by people who have an adequate degree of 1) spiritual liberation from the tyranny of the finite and 2) moral alignment with logos.  This is absolute truth because only Infinite Awareness (GOD) has absolute freedom.  All finite creatures such as ourselves are subject to logos, the natural law of cause and effect, and therefore restricted by Nature.  Consequently, we can only achieve what liberty is possible for any creature – liberation from ignorance, greed, anger and sorrow – by surrendering to the will of GOD, i.e. living in alignment with logos/dharma.

The idea that a free society is a society that tolerates all manner of degeneracy and debauchery has no philosophical or practical foundation.  A society is composed of individuals interacting.  Consequently, wicked people can only produce a wicked society.  What is wickedness?  Simply, thought, words and deeds that violate or rebel against logos/dharma – the law of cause and effect or Order of the Universe– and therefore produce crime, disorder and disease.  

The founders of the U.S.A. understood that a wicked and irreligious people can not have a good life or sustain a free society.  For example, Thomas Jefferson rhetorically wrote:

"Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God?"

And John Adams wrote: 

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

A man or woman has as many masters as he or she has vices. Since a society is only a collection of individuals, the vices of individuals are the vices of the society, and a community has as many masters as it has vices.  Vice leads to crime and poverty, and crime IS tyranny – one or more individuals  violating the life, liberty or private property of someone else.

 In response to crime and the resulting poverty, fearful, weak, irreligious and immoral people will always choose one or more dictators who will dictate "laws" to impose restrictions on liberty (more crime) in order to obtain a false sense of security.  To enforce these "laws" the dictators will employ a band of "law enforcers" empowered to use lethal force to coerce compliance with the laws.  This leads inevitably to greater and greater corruption and abuse of power.  

It is difficult if not impossible to live a good life under such circumstances.  This is why people will risk their lives in war to escape tyranny. 

This is why, throughout history, subversive "revolutionaries" and tyrants seeking to grab, establish or increase their political power have promoted pornography, masturbation, sodomy and "sexual liberation."  These weapons of cultural warfare de-moralize the target population and most importantly disable the men who might otherwise revolt against the tyrants, as E. Michael Jones explains extensively in his book Libido Dominandi, and briefly in this interview:

We are right now engaged in an epic battle between good and evil, liberty and tyranny, as today's States and corporations, working together (which "public-private partnership" is the essence of fascism), are actively promoting all kinds of sexual vices, with the apparent goal of enslaving all of mankind under one global socialist dictatorship run by unelected tyrants such as the suits at the United Nations and European Union. 

Will You Live the Good Life?

Now you know how to live a good life, by using your gift of life to pursue:

  1. Virtue via alignment with logos, and fulfillment of social and moral duties 
  2. Wealth and prosperity acquired in alignment with logos 
  3. Enjoyment of good things, without attachment, in alignment with logos
  4. Liberation from a) ignorance and bondage through knowledge of and communion with the Ultimate Reality, GOD, and b) political tyranny.

Basically, you must make the choice between good and evil, the good leading to health, happiness and liberty, and evil leading to disease, sorrow and slavery.

Payment is due no matter which you choose. 

Which path will you take?

Notes

1. Use of contraceptives has increased the prevalence of both promiscuity and STDs. Cohen L. The 'pill', promiscuity, and venereal disease. Brit J Vener Dis 1970;46:108.

2. Promiscuity even increases the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases among promiscuous birds, proving that it is a violation of logos:  Aldo Poiani, Colin Wilks, Sexually Transmitted Diseases: A Possible Cost of Promiscuity in Birds?, The Auk, Volume 117, Issue 4, 1 October 2000, Pages 1061–1065, https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/117.4.1061

3. Promiscuity increases the prevalence of depression.  Mendle, J., Ferrero, J., Moore, S. R., & Harden, K. P. (2013). Depression and adolescent sexual activity in romantic and nonromantic relational contexts: A genetically-informative sibling comparison. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(1), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029816

4. Promiscuity increases the prevalence of substance abuse. Ramrakha S, Paul C, Bell ML, Dickson N, Moffitt TE, Caspi A. The relationship between multiple sex partners and anxiety, depression, and substance dependence disorders: a cohort study. Arch Sex Behav. 2013;42(5):863–872. doi:10.1007/s10508-012-0053-1

5. Sodomy increases the prevalence of violence, promiscuity, substance abuse, physical and mental disease in young people. CDC data show that teen agers who engage in lesbian, gay and bisexual behavior or are uncertain of sexual orientation are in comparison to heterosexuals at substantially (200-700%) increased risk for forced sexual activity (rape); sexual violence; sexual dating violence; physical dating violence; feeling sad or hopeless; seriously considering suicide; making a suicide plan; attempting suicide; making a suicide attempt resulting in injury, poisoning or overdose requiring medical treatment; trying cigarette smoking; using cigarettes; cocaine use; heroin use; methamphetamine use; ecstasy use; hallucinogenic drug use; steroid use; injection of illegal drugs; illegal drug trades and transactions on school property; sexual intercourse before age of 13; sexual intercourse with 4 or more people. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance – United States, 2017: <https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/ss/ss6708a1.htm?s_cid=hy-yrbs2017-mmwr>

6. "Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM)...are disproportionately impacted by syphilis, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)."  <https://www.cdc.gov/std/life-stages-populations/msm.htm>

7.  STD rates are increasing, and "Young people and gay and bisexual men continue to face the greatest risk of becoming infected with an STD, and there continue to be troubling increases in syphilis among newborns."  <https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/2016/std-surveillance-report-2015-press-release.html>

8.  "Men who have sex with men (MSM) accounted for the majority of new gonorrhea and P&S syphilis cases (82 percent of male cases with known gender of sex partner). Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea may be higher among MSM." <https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/2016/std-surveillance-report-2015-press-release.html>

9. The anus is NOT a sexual organ, so people who use it as one suffer evil consequences for violating logos. "Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are 17 times more likely to get anal cancer than heterosexual men. Men who are HIV-positive are even more likely than those who do not have HIV to get anal cancer." <https://www.cdc.gov/msmhealth/STD.htm>

10. US Dept of Health and Human Services. Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4). Report to Congress. Section 5.3.1. <http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/nis4_report_congress_full_pdf_jan2010.pdf>

11. Sullins DP, “Emotional Problems among Children with Same-Sex Parents: Difference by Definition,” British Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science 2015;7(2):99-120.

12. Tao Te Ching, trans. by Victor Mair, chapter 7 (44 in other versions).

13. Ibid, chapter 9 (46 in other versions).

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