We're Bad

In the past, we spent time studying utility relationships. These friendships have to do with usefulness and justice is the goal. Currently, we have been studying criteria for commonality relationships. These don't have to do with justice but have different depths. These don't come and go as often, especially the close ones, since commonalities are stable. Later we will address pleasure.

The extreme commonality relationship we call being in love and the least intense are considered shallow. It is possible to have numerous shallow friendships and that isn't bad. We have fellow citizens, teams and celebrities that we want to see do well and have good will toward. But toward the extreme of love we can have very few and usually look for one person to share the most depth with.

Is it possible for a bad person to have these kind of friends? Bad things are those things that violate our conscience. Sometimes we act in a moment of passion. At times it is a kind of defiance to declare our freedom. Those with good hearts will be miserable afterward and have a hard time living with themselves. Restraint can be difficult and becomes an act of love. It preserves the peace in each person's heart. The easy, uncaring route is to just go with it and pay later. Sometimes good people  admire those who can do things with no regrets and wonder what it is like to be that way. But the question is whether the conscience can bear it. Those who act that way usually have the most inner conflict of all but it is a different kind; the cycle of vice and regrets. It is scary to be around people who have no conscience at all since there is no telling what they will do and who they will burn. We, in the same way, don't want to turn ourselves into a person with no conscience since happiness involves feeling good about ourselves; the self love or inner friendship we discussed earlier. Aristotle emphasizes that we should avoid violating our conscience at all cost since to do so puts a person in a state of wretchedness.

Goodwill; the desire to see one do well is the beginning of commonality friendships in the same way pleasure is the beginning of love. To be in love, a person must first delight in someone. Of course we can delight in anyone but it becomes love when we miss them. So in the same way, we cannot have friendship without goodwill first. To have goodwill, doesn't mean we are friends though. Goodwill means we want to see someone succeed due to a perceived excellence.