Eudaimonia is the Antithesis of Authoritarianism 

The Wisdom of Aristotle and the ‘Greater Good’ is the Difference in being human and the Difference it makes

in the words of Peter, Paul & Mary: “When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn.”

Examples of authoritarianism are throughout history. We see the path to the greater good in Aristotle, Plato, Jesus of Nazareth, Thomas Aquinas, Kant, and we see it in the modern era in the writings of Bonhoeffer and Viktor Frankl. We see it in Rerum Novarum, a papal encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, issued in 1891. 

Quoting the Second Vatican Council document, Gaudium et Spes (1965) says, “According to its primary and broadly accepted sense, the common good indicates ‘the total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.” 

Leaders often talk about the “Greater Good” but seldom practiced and repeatedly just outright refused to acknowledge.

Are we witnessing the rise of authoritarianism in a more unified fashion among dictators? Is there ‘honor among thieves?” 

“The task of men…is not to desert historical struggles nor to serve the cruel and inhuman elements in those struggles. It is rather to remain what they are, to help man against what is oppressing him, to favor freedom against the fatalities that close in upon it.… Man’s greatness…lies in his decision to be greater than his condition. And if his condition is unjust, he has only one way of overcoming it, which is to be just himself.”   ~ Albert Camus, Resistance, Rebellion, and Death

The Difference in being human and the Difference it makes, when will we ever learn? hi