Author's Note: This essay was for my college class on the concept of the "Good Life". We were given topics to read about to understand what the good life was. I felt this class was the most useless class in the world.
The Good Life can be found in many different forms due to the many different people that strive for it every day. When someone strives for the Good Life, they often times have to forfeit items or rights in the process. This can be seen as the cost of the Good Life. The costs of the Good Life can be found in literary works such as, "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen", "A Short History of America", and Champ d'avoine by Claude Monet. These pieces of literature and artwork can provide evidence into what the cost of the good life truly is.
The concept of reason is a major aspect in the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen". "The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen" goes through all the rights that should be given birth rights. For example, the first article explains how all men, when they are born, are free. Freedom is something that many people do not think about when it comes to a birth right. Mainly, this is because of freedom being prevalent throughout their lives. Not knowing what it is like to not have freedom is detrimental in the process of understanding the true meaning of freedom. People who truly know what freedom means are the slaves. Slavery, in places like the Americas, has a dark history mainly because of the lack of freedom that these slaves were given. "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" shows how important freedom can be. The reason behind freedom is that it implies a right to do whatever you want to do in your life. When you lose your freedom, the cost of the good life is everything that you will never be able to accomplish. Having this freedom taken away from you is a major violation of the good life and can hinder the ability to ever reach the good life. The right of freedom in the declaration show how important the right of freedom truly is to the Good Life.
"A Short History of America" provides various drawings of the different stages of America. From the rural beginnings to the predicted future of America, we are given an outlook on the sustainability of America. The continuous theme in the pictures is the lack of vegetation as the pictures grow closer to the present day. These pictures provide a basis on which one can analyze the sustainability of the environment at the rate that we are currently at. The vegetation is disappearing because people are continuously creating new technology and are using up all the natural resources in the process. In the predicted future, we are given three choices of life style.
The first lifestyle revolves around the destruction of the good life. The picture displays a blazing sun and a ghost town that is destroyed by years of being abandoned. This picture is a great answer of the sustainability of the good life. With all of the resources being used up, the city that was once thriving with people living the good life is left to the dust with no one reaching the good life in sight. The second picture involves the ideal futuristic society. The society has hovercrafts and futuristic style buildings. The main difference between the first picture and the second picture would be that people are still reaching the good life. The resources are still available which allows people to reach the good life that they are searching for. This is probably the most ideal future for most people. Technology still advances and life from the current time is just improved. The cost of the good life in this picture is the use of resources but not at a level that destroys the good life. The third, and final, picture is one of a nature-like society. This society reverted back to a less technological stage. The importance of the nature and resources is very clear in this society. The cost of the good life in this society is the technology that people have become very fond with. On the other side, nature is a major aspect in the good life.
As we see in many paintings and other art pieces, nature is often the focal point of someone's good life due to the beauty that nature often presents. From "A Short History of America", the observer can see that the cost of the good life is found through nature and the progression of human society in technology. The never ending battle between resources and advancement in technology will continue until we find a solution. The outcomes of this battle are the three possible futures of America as described.
The painting by Monet, Champ d'avoine, is the painting of an oat field. The cost of the good life in this painting is of what artists were going through during this time period. The normal every day artist did not paint nature. Monet left the realism side of painting in search for a completely innovative style of painting. Monet found the good life by painting these impressionist paintings of nature. The idea of nature being a major aspect of the good life is brought on once again by paintings like Monet's. He showed how nature's calm and peaceful atmosphere may not always be permanent. The oat field in the painting could one day be destroyed. The cost of destroying nature is the cost of losing this type of artwork in the future. During the impressionist era, this idea of nature being more fragile than permanent is what inspired all these types of paintings of nature. The cost of the Good life in this painting is the possibility of losing the nature, a major factor in the good life itself.
The cost of the good life can be found through the gateways and pillars such as "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen", "A Short History of Progress", and Champ d'avoine. Through freedom being a main aspect of the good life, the future treatment of Earth's resources, and nature's impact in the good life. Freedom and preservation of nature are major aspects in keeping everyone's search for the "Good Life" alive.
Author's Note:Sources: Crumb, Robert. A Short History of America. 1993.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Aug. 26 1789.
Monet, Claude. Champ d'avoine ( Oat Field ), 1890.
