There are No Good People

There are only people who do good.

We like to assign certain people as good or bad because we would like for it to be that simple. We can divide ourselves into two groups - people who are good and people who are bad. Most of the time each of us faces choices to act or not that are quite simple. We can pride ourselves as good people because we can choose to do a mitzvah, pick up after ourselves in public or listen patiently to a friend in need. We can see others as bad people not so much when they omit to do the right things but when they actively do something we consider ‘bad’ like drive recklessly or commit violence against another person.

Unfortunately, this simplicity obscures the truth, which is that, when faced with more difficult choices, when the situation is complex or when the choices in front of you are out of your control, like the Trolley Problem or Sophie’s choice, any action you can take is not only good or bad - it is a mixture of both.

This is why it’s not useful or honest to think of ourselves as good or bad people because each one of us could have a good or a bad impact when there is no objective morally positive choice. When we face the world with this honesty and acknowledge our own capability to do both good and bad, then we can deeply understand that there is only the uncertainty and humanity of the attempt to do the right thing, the struggle to make the best decision, one step, one action at a time. In this humility we can see each other and ourselves as flawed but still worthy of acceptance and forgiveness.

And for those of you who think the better ‘choice’ is to wait and see or not do anything in the face of difficult times, I would say that your inaction is a rejection of our joint responsibility to each other to keep trying, keep moving in the right direction. It’s almost as bad or worse than making the ‘wrong’ decision. Doubt and indecision leaves others around you to try and fill the gap of your absence as they try to get around you. Like a slow car in the fast lane; as if innocently traveling and unaware that there are others on the road, causing near misses and anger and frustration.

Saying that there are good people and bad people encourages us to think of them as independent actors. By acknowledging that we are all capable of doing good or bad things makes it more of a team sport, where we work together to build the momentum of good - enabling it to gather and grow in the efforts of us all - one step at a time.