Is it possible to live a good life in a corrupt society?

Is it possible to live a good life in a corrupt society? This is a very good question in the sense that there are many different approaches to answering it.

The way I see it, I think it depends heavily on who the person is. As we have seen in our study of the various philosophers, many people have different points of view on how to live life and the meaning of it. Even comparing two philosophers like Nietzsche and John Stuart Mill you see a major difference. Mill’s concept of Utilitarianism vs. Nietzsche's Master Morality shows how different the two men view the concept of human life.

This idea plays largely into the question except on a smaller scale. But with this idea of diversity amongst the masses in a population this helps look at society as a whole. This idea of individuality is very interesting when looking at society. So, to answer the question I think yes, it is possible to live a good life in a corrupt society. Will it be challenging? Yes. This is only because growing up or even living in a certain place and being influenced by values and cultures -- literally shapes who an individual is. But looking at the world as it is today one can see that humans are not alike in any means. Yes, we all share similar characteristics but there are all types of people in this world.

A society will always have its “loose ends” by this I mean that handful of individuals who cause trouble or seek it. But along with those negative people come a more well-rounded group of individuals. One could even say the United States government is “corrupt” because things happen that not everyone knows about or would necessarily approve of, does that mean an American cannot live a good life? Of course not! To go along with what (the majority of) the philosophers we studied in class said, I believe that humans just want to be happy and for some that means murdering, stealing, lying and cheating and for others it means the complete opposite.

As Aristotle once said: “All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.” And this, once again, depends on who that person is, what they were shaped as growing up, and what they value in life. From here, they will do what they can to achieve happiness or contentment.

So to say just because a society as a whole is one thing then there is no way an individual can be different is kind of a cum hoc fallacy because the two are poorly correlated.

W.C- 446