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

In order to answer this question we need to go into the swamp as it were, but first of all I want to look at defining the question. First off, what constitutes a 'good life', is it simply a life were you are happy, a life where you are simply alive and things are mediocre, or is it something more, I like to believe that having a good life is being satisfied by life, when you wake up in the morning you open your eyes and think 'you now what, my life isn't perfect, but I'm happy.' A good life is one where you know about the imperfections around you but are still happy.

If we look at this as the definition of a good life then I definitely think that it is possible to live one in a corrupt society. We need to realize that society will always be corrupt in one way or another, a non corrupt society is impossible and would never last, it is in our nature as humans to put our lives ever so slightly above those around us. If that means going out of our way to earn couple extra buck on the sidelines then that is what we will do. It is the same reason why children cheat at school, or rebellious teenagers steal money from their parents wallets. They want to make a part of their life better for themselves be it in a small detail or something huge. Living a good life in a corrupt society means that you have come to terms with this idea, and understand that it wont change. You don't get sad or depressed when something happens because you've come to terms with it, you've learned how to see these situations in a way where you know what is happening, you understand why it is happening, you get that you can't change the world on your own, and you've gotten to the stage where it doesn't bother you anymore.

Another way I want to answer this question is by looking at an old saying, 'Ignorance is bliss'. This saying talks about how he who knows nothing, knows happiness. It is the idea that if you don't know what is happening around you, you don't now how to not be unhappy about it. And since I think I messed up that triple negative sentence I'm going to re word it. If you don't know about all the bad things that are happening around you, you can be happy because you don't know/realize how they affect you. If we look at the question through this view then we can see again how someone could live a good life in a corrupt society simply because they have no idea what is going on. However, it isn't ignorance in a bad sense such as someone walking off a cliff because they don't know the path ends, but ignorance in the sense that they may know there is corruption in society but not to the same extent as others.

So, in both these cases it would be possible for people to live a good life in a corrupt society.