life

Arete as a way of life?

      

The Greeks have defined a person’s achievements by its virtuosity. They welcomed anyone who face many struggles in their path of excellence even greater, which is also known as agon. These two components is what allows the people to label and give recognition for the person's achievement with pride, and it can lead to the issue of creating a selfish world or it being more than that.

In life, we must find balance. Whenever we try to achieve anything in life, we do it to it’s fullest excellence and as a result we become obsessed in our work and our own work only. To be only given recognition of our ability in life upon "good light"(worth of giving pride when pride is acceptable) takes away our full focus of anything else life has going on. With the standards put up so high on anything we do, our willingness to take off focus on anything other than that would appear be ineffective and unproductive . While a person can grow in becoming someone with well rounded traits from having to go through the struggle of making that achievement possible, the agon having them furthermore creating a higher value of pride to their work for doing so. Such as helping them understand the feeling of rejected over and over, having to put a new perspective on how life works so they don’t give up and learn to self motivate. Help see what works and doesn't work in certain situations of getting motivated and getting things done. Adjusting to more than one view of how to do things, which is a relevant skill to obtain even after the work is achieved and carries to a more selfless view of others.

There is so many things to do and such little time to do it all. To have a society of hardworking people who all can agree that they share a common interest in life of its self. It is not possible for one person to do it all, so having a system of praising people in doing something different to its fullest helps added to the pool of knowledge of what the human kind can do and build on that. To think that there is more to it than just a selfish act of collecting pleasure that pride gives is possible. While at the moment of one’s process of obtaining a specific achievement is selfish, when the achievement is recognized what is gain is beneficial for the common good of the people which is a new skill that has arisen. Almost like a tool, others can use that skill knowing it's been perfected and at its finest and doesn't need to 20 more people trying to make it better. Society gains knowledge of what is possible and how and create a productive society

To think about the purpose of praising someone for doing an excellent achievement is good and in a sense can be productive for the community. However a person can only learn so little when keeping focus on one goal at a time to its fullest. Other problems can arise from lack of balance in their life. And not ever sense of achievement will people consider worth praising so a lot of other opportunities will be lost in interests to pursue it. Arete as a way of life is a great concept to make more people inclined to do things to its fullest, however the structure of what is worth pursuing cuts off on other things to be done because it's not appealing.