How can one achieve simplicity in a complex society? Is it a choice to keep it simple or is it an obligation to wade into the complexities of the human drama. Each reader will have their opinion as does this writer, but lets look deeper. A hint: the deeper you go the simpler it gets. An observation to push this further is no one can dive into a pool of water without breaking the surface of that water first and the surface of all human matters is complex because of our outrageous diversity. No one except maybe God would erase diversity and this writer gets the feeling God, and if not God, than certainly nature herself doesn’t want to. So we are dealing with an unavoidable paradox. Like all paradoxes we have to grow up to deal with it since only children can live happily with pure contradiction.

Lets take law and order for instance. There are laws and even though many are complex (and even more complex than they need to be), they are finite instructions about how everyone (the public) must proceed. The democracy contract anticipates in our diversity we may disagree with some laws until we can change them, but we agree to obey them because we are adults who believe in democracy and the surface of democracy is very complex indeed. Children parse parental instruction so thin because they can’t believe living in contraction is not an entitlement; that is children and authoritarian politicians whose morale sense is in frozen development. The Supreme Court (and what part of the word ‘Supreme’ is ambiguous) orders an administration to facilitate the return of an unjustly deported human being to a hellish prison existence and the politicians resist by arguing the word “facilitate” like errant children wanting to wear the wrong teeshirt to school this morning. If it weren’t so hellishly tragic it would be a comedy, but it isn’t. The structure of our democracy is screeching, metal on metal, under the stress of its abuse. 

Good in this case is recognizing we have an imperfect system driven by the vote and not the passions of any single individual. We have recognized since the 18th century that no person has a hotline to God and the monarchies were only deteriorated versions of human justice. Good is living with both complexity and understanding that morality is simple instruction for a reason. Good decisions must be made and they are difficult. Law and order serves all with temporal structure. Good is this social contract and if you have ever lived outside of this contract you will certainly know how good.