What does a good life mean to you?
Hey there 👋🏻
In our learning circle on Friday, we were joined by Rohan, Shanya, Arpana, Prateek, Khushi, Christopher, and Surya! We began the circle by asking all of you about the one behavior that you thought you couldn’t change before the pandemic but you have now and it was fascinating to see how much of it revolved around food. Particularly, Prateek shared that he has figured out how to get his protein needs to be met while transitioning into a vegan - do reach out to him if you’re looking for any tips! 🍽️
In this circle, we were going to learn about a social philosophy that has been inspiring movements in South America. To prepare ourselves for it, we engaged in a little exercise where all of us shared our vision of what a good life meant to us and how would living collaboratively in a community look. It was so amazing to see you add virtual sticky notes with all of your beautiful thoughts. The group definitely passed the vibe check! ✅
We learned about Buen Vivir, a way of living where the well-being of a person is centered around not just an individual but the individual in the context of their community and the environment they live in, inspired by the indigenous past of the place.
Two key topics around which we had a long discussion:
The idea of harmony - harmony between us and also with nature - where the rights of the individual are subjugated to those of the community and nature. In this case, instead of being owners of nature and its resources, we are merely caretakers during our time on this planet.
What is the true motive of education? Is it making people ready for jobs or is it enlightenment?
In the context of India, Rohan shared how the lifestyle of the West has been imposed on us as if it is a superior lifestyle to our own. Now, over time, most of us have started desiring the lifestyle of the West as the one to aspire for. He pointed us to the Asian value debate which argues that many of our values are more cohesive than those of the West. For example, the West only uses the GDP to measure its progress whereas Bhutan looks at Gross Domestic Happiness which actually factors in the well-being of its people.
He also shared his concern for how capitalism has become too deep in India to the point that it feels impossible to change now. Shanya, however, disagreed by highlighting that our generation is imbibing the idea of decolonization and trying to move away from the colonial structures. If you are not familiar with the idea of capitalism or colonialism, please watch these videos: what is colonialism? what is capitalism? She also recommended watching the documentary, The Century of the Self, which tells the story of how companies were taught to sell us products that we didn’t need.
Surya shared this mind-boggling video that talks about the fact that the modern evil that we are faced with doesn’t have a concrete face and is often an integral part of our everyday life, unlike what is depicted in most of our movies and TV shows, and what we can do to truly combat it!
On the true goal of education, we discussed that for people who are unable to meet their daily needs, earning money trumps almost everything in its importance. Shanya shared that it is unfair to push the burden of climate change on the poor and change has to begin from those of us who are privileged.
The article went on to talk a lot more about consumerism, including the environmental costs of a product in its actual price, the benefits of small-scale production, and the true impact of corporate social responsibility beyond improving the brand of the company.
Finally, the idea of reading this article was to use Buen Vivir as a starting point to start envisioning the kind of world we want to live in. So, what does a good life look like for you? Reply with your thoughts. We are very eager to hear you!
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