What is the greatest good for the greatest amount of people and are you living in such a system today?

Answer 1

The greatest good to the greatest amount is an ethic, or ideal held by individuals who consider their actions. In order to be ethical, one has to consider the consequences of their own actions, those of others and those that happen because of unforeseen events. In order to be ethical one must necessarily accept responsibility for their own actions, no matter how minute those actions may be, be able and willing to accept responsibility for others, if they are unable or unwilling to accept that responsibility themselves, and to accept responsibility for those unforeseen events that affect us all. Those who do this and act in ways toward facilitation the greatest good to the greatest amount are ethical, those who act in ways contrary to that ideal are not ethical.

It is a tall order for any individual, to accept so much responsibility. It is, however, what is required if one individual ever hopes to facilitate the greater good. Because there is so much effort involved in being ethical, it is tempting to believe that a group or society might be better suited for facilitating the greater good. The problem with this idea is that groups or societies are only as ethical as the individuals who occupy those groups or societies. In the end, only the individual can make the decision to be ethical and no one else can make that decision for them. If we are to be ethical we must be as individuals first. We must be supermen and superwomen if we are ever to be truly ethical. This is why comic book heroes such as Superman and Wonder Woman, Spiderman and Batman are so popular in western cultures, as are the classic myths of heroes such as Hercules, Achilles, Hector and King Leopold of Sparta or even Luke Skywalker, all are mythical heroes designed to inform and instruct us on how to behave as a hero, how to behave as an ethical man. In the comic book Spiderman, it was Uncle Ben who warned Peter Parker that "with great power comes great responsibility." As true as that may be, perhaps there is no greater power than that of accepting responsibility.