Updating the good place article

1 files changed, 114 insertions, 36 deletions

diff --git a/content/blog/xxx_the_good_place.md b/content/blog/xxx_the_good_place.md
index 73f6f85..0e2d6c1 100644
--- a/content/blog/xxx_the_good_place.md
+++ b/content/blog/xxx_the_good_place.md
@@ -6,21 +6,22 @@ Status: Draft
 
 A few months ago I was bored and I decided to watch "The good place".
 It's a show that had been introduced to me before, and I even watched
-about half of the first season, before I stopped.  It had left me kind
-of cold, and uninterested, and I mostly forget about it's existence.
-But now I was sufficiently bored and so, I watched it again.
-
-I don't really wanna talk about the show from the perspective of art
-critism.  It's quite fun to watch at times, the premise is quirky and
-all the characters have something to set them apart that makes them
-recognisable for someone who's bad at people.  But it's a comedy at
-it's core, and most of the "humour" left me feeling kinda cold.  It
-didn't so much have jokes as much as just vague references at jokes,
-at least for me.
+about half of the first season, before I kinda forgot about it.  It
+had left me feeling mostly irritated, and uninterested, and so I moved
+on with my life.  Up to the point where I felt _really_ bored, and I
+started watching it again.
+
+I don't really wanna talk about the show from an art criticism
+perspective.  It's quite fun to watch at times, the premise is quirky
+and all the characters have something to set them apart that makes
+them recognisable for someone who's bad at differentiating people.
+But it's a comedy at it's core, and most of the "humour" left me
+feeling kinda cold.  It didn't so much have jokes as much as just
+vague references at jokes.
 
 Really, the show wasn't special, funny, or even bad enough for me to
 really care about it too much.  There was however something in the
-text, and subtext of the show that bothered me, that I've kept
+moral text, and subtext of the show that bothered me, that I've kept
 thinking about.  And that's what this post is going to be about.
 
 
@@ -35,35 +36,37 @@ ages.
 The story follows a woman who gets sent to the good place even though
 she's a horrible person.  Most of the first season is dedicated to
 this mystery.  At first she thinks this is a mistake, until it becomes
-apparent that actually bad people being put into a fake "good place"
-is part of a weird psychological punishment.  When they find out about
-this, their memories get wiped, and it starts over.  This happens over
-and over again.
+apparent, that bad people being put into a fake "good place" is part
+of a weird psychological punishment system in the bad place.  They are
+in fact in the bad place.  When they find out about this, their
+memories get wiped, and it starts from the beginning, with slight
+alterations.  But the group figures out that they aren't in their
+personal paradise again and again, and so their memories get wiped
+again, and again.
 
 The show wants to demonstrate that people can get better, seeing as a
 group of "bad people" were sent to a fake "good place", and improved
 as people.  The permanence of "good people" and "bad people" is called
 into question.  Some stuff happens, and the group of four people, and
-one daemon who started taking a liking to them end up on the run
-against the system.
+one daemon who started taking a liking to them end up on the run.
 
 Throughout the plot it becomes apparent that the system is broken in
-less obvious ways too: nobody gets to go to the good place anymore.
-Nobody is good enough.  Too high are the standards of what counts as a
+more subtle ways too: nobody gets to go to the good place anymore.
+Nobody is good enough; too high are the standards of what counts as a
 "good person".  Furthermore, when they manage to get into the good
 place, it becomes clear that eternal bliss with no ups and downs, and
-no end in sight is a just different type of hell.
+no end in sight is just a different type of hell.
 
 The show concludes by restructuring the system, making the "bad place"
 not into a torterous nightmare, but a place where your actions and
-emotions are being tested, and questioned.  The idea being that there
-is no such thing as a "bad person", and that everybody could go to the
-"good place", if they accepted that they have flaws, and worked on
-them.
+emotions are being tested, and called into question.  The idea being
+that there is no such thing as a "bad person", and that everybody
+could go to the "good place", if they accepted that they have flaws,
+and worked on them.
 
-They also mildly restructure the "good place" to have "an end"
-which...is death.  Isn't that nice, everybody gets to live their
-perfect life in heaven, then they die.
+They also mildly restructure the "good place" to have "an end" which
+is death.  Isn't that nice, everybody gets to live their perfect life
+in heaven, then they die.
 
 
 ## Good people, bad people
@@ -85,14 +88,13 @@ Throughout the show he quotes Kant a lot, with some other racist white
 men from history sprinkled in there.  His understanding of philosophy
 isn't very deep, or nuanced.  Either he was supposed to be bad at his
 job, at which point the show didn't really take the time to develop
-this point enough to be poignant, or it just demonstrates that the
-show was written by people with basically no knowledge in this field.
+this enough to be poignant, or it just demonstrates that the show was
+written by people with basically no knowledge in this field.
 
-I argue that the way that "the good place" portraits philosophy and
+I argue that the way that "the good place" portrays philosophy and
 moral choices in philosophical frameworks is very representative of
 how our society works, and how people think about "good vs bad".
 
-
 But let's back up a bit.  For most of the show (if you watched it/
 will) the thoughts it is trying the hardest to communicate are
 "there's no bad people", "hell is a bad concept", etc.  This becomes
@@ -101,14 +103,90 @@ pretty much entirely un-examined.  Why is there an afterlife, and why
 do we need one, these are questions the show never asks, or attempts
 to answer.  Any critism against the system is phrased in a coy way,
 that will lead to reform of it, not abolishment, i.e. changing what
-the "good place" and "bad place" means, not their core existence.
+the "good place" and "bad place" means, not their existence.
 
 
-## Morial individualism
+## Moral individualism
 
 I said the show is representative of how people think about morality,
 and this doesn't just start and end at "what is a good person".  It
-also applies to individualism.
+also applies to how the show deals with individualism.
 
 What is individualism you may ask?  I'm glad you did (not really, now
-this post has to be longer...)
+this post has to be longer...).  Indivualism is one of the axiomatic
+philosophies that the western world is built on.  It's the idea that
+each individual is responsible for their own destiny, and identity.
+
+Used in a (mostly) harmless way it's used to sell things to people
+that can be "customised" to fit your "own personal style" (without
+_really_ giving you any autonomy), whereas on a higher and more
+sinister level it is used to justify the horrors of society.  As an
+out of context Margaret Thatcher would say "there's no such thing as
+society, only people".  After all, society is just men, women and
+those damn enbies, that all make their own free choices, and if
+society is bad, then that's just a representation of how people are
+bad.
+
+This is an over-simplification of course, but it digs at the core of
+what individualism means to us.  It's a way to absolve society of
+guilt, up to refusing the existence of it all together.  Individualism
+touches many, if not all aspects of society, and it would take too
+long to really examine them all here.  Instead, I want to focus on
+what this means for "the good place".
+
+
+## There is no society in "the good place"
+
+I don't know if the word "society" is ever used in the script, but it
+is certainly not a subject of conversation in any of the episodes.
+None of the characters will acknowledge that there is a human society
+or what it looks like.  The focus is on individuals.  After all, the
+fact that the world is bad is the result of just a few bad people,
+that need to become better.
+
+This is where the view that "there is no bad people" the show tries to
+hammer into you falls flat.  Because it's a lie.
+
+Human society is structured in a way that a few select people at the
+top have a lot of wealth and power, while the rest of us live in
+varying degrees of poverty by comparison.  I grew up in Germany so I'm
+gonna say I don't live in luxury and peace by comparison to others,
+but we _all_ suffer under the ruling class.  This is a reality the
+show refuses to acknowledge and it makes it's arguments about moral
+philosophy feel almost dystopian.
+
+Maybe this is controvertial, but there are bad people.  If it is your
+job to harass homeless people, you are a bad person.  If it is your
+job to enforce the "war on drugs" that overwealmingly affects black
+people, you are a bad person.  If you are a billionaire, you are a bad
+person.  I'm sorry, but you are. You are in a position where you
+_could_ change society for the better. You _could_ give all your
+wealth away, and actually help people.  But you don't.  And no, I
+don't mean the fake philanthropy that rich people indulge in because
+those are usually just schemes to pay less takes and work on their
+public image.  No billionaire ever gives away so much money that they
+stop being a billionaire.  Because why would they?
+
+The ending of the good place is framed as a beautiful thing where
+everybody gets to live a life in heaven in the end, if they manage to
+work on themselves to become better people.  And sure, there are "bad
+people" like sexists and racists, and they'll just get stuck in these
+tests forever that they won't escape until they become better people.
+It doesn't matter how much suffering you've caused others, you get to
+go to the good place if you manage to accept that you were bad.
+
+
+## There could be heaven on earth
+
+I mentioned earlier that the system of the afterlife isn't called into
+question in this show.  Well, I want to call it into question.  The
+ending is framed in a way that is meant to make you feel happy and
+hopeful, but all it makes me feel is wonder why we needed to wait
+until the afterlife for people to deserve happyness.
+
+The world is an awful place because of people, sure, but it's the
+system that makes people into monsters.  Not only will it corrupt
+people going in with good intentions, it will turn people with bad
+intentions into powerful rulers.
+
+"The good place" fails to or refuses to understand that society exists.