Ok, well I was sitting in my room listening to the Kanye West album titled ‘Graduation’ and there is a song called ‘The Good Life’ on the album. Then I started thinking, if Aristotle were still alive he would be shaking his head in disapproval, lol. On page 97 & 98 (1095b15-1095b25) Aristotle believed there are three different lives: The life of consumption (life of pleasure), life of political activity (virtue), and the life of reflection (wisdom). Well obviously their views on living the good life are different. Aristotle believed the life of consumption, which most view as happiness, is wrong and will not give you happiness. “Now most of the utterly slavish sort of people obviously decide in favour of a life that belongs to grazing cattle, and not without reason, given that many of those things in high places behave like Sardanapallus.” In this quote Aristotle is trying to say us human beings are rational human beings. We have to find a unique function and to live with rational activity. We will not achieve full potential as human beings with the life of consumption.
Well let’s move along to Kanye’s type of living the good life. Kanye cites a lot of material items like the features of owning a Ferrari vs. owning a regular car, alcohol, and going on vacations, as the reason he's living the good life. In the song Kanye says, “I always had a passion for flashin’ (meaning having flashy things), befo’ I had it, I closed my eyes and imagined. The good life!” Kanye feels good and happy when he has the fine things in life (extravagant clothes, jewelry, cars etc.) However, it should be noted that Kanye spent years of his life going to school, working regular jobs, attempting to get a conventional education, and all the things people claim you should do to live a good life. However, he wasn't happy with that life. Those were other people's paths, not his. He did it his way, making beats and writing songs that he's always dreamed about. To him, that's the good life. In the process, he's helped open doors to individuals who have the passions of making music to express their talent and uniqueness. Also in the song, he sort of leaves what the "the good life" is open to interpretation when he exclaims the good life feeling like an array of different cities; “The good life, it feels like Houston, it feels like Philly, it feels like D.C., it feels like V.A. or the Bay or Yay. Ayy! This is the good life.” The good life could be just how you feel when you're trying something new or seeing new things, that weren't possible when you were not happy with what you're doing. I feel that Kanye thinks he has already achieved his maximum potential. That he is already unique, and that makes him happy. But the question is, “Is he really happy?”
In our society pleasure is the main source of happiness. Whatever makes you feel good you get happiness from that. Most people look at the entertainment media and try to imitate their lives. The entertainment media shows that living the glamorous, luxurious life is the good life (i.e. being rich and spending money on fabulous things such as: vacations, clothes, cars, house, etc.) There are plenty songs that view the good life as being rich and getting anything you want. But Aristotle is questioning if all that really makes you happy? Aristotle spoke about achieving eudaimonia, which means happiness. Eudaimonia is not an emotional state; it is more about being all that you can, fulfilling your potential. The idea is that by living in a way that reaches your full potential you flourish and show the best version of you that you can be. Aristotle thought that the practice of virtues would equate to happiness, in the sense of being all you could be. By virtues, Aristotle meant the act of achieving balance and moderation (pg. 117 1107a1-1107a25). Every action that Kanye makes to achieve happiness is certainly not intermediate. So pretty much Aristotle disagrees, and that’s not living the good life.
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