In a rancorous public moment, what could I possibly do?
More or less every day, I find myself engaging in conversations around some variant of this question: “in a world where so much seems awry, what could I possibly do?” My answer generally is that we should be leaning into what we do, doing it as well as we can, and that this, in and of itself, is useful for the world.
And yet, the notion of just being “useful,” in a rancorous public moment, feels somehow…small. I argue, though, that far from being small, it is exactly what we should aspire to - individually and collectively - and that if more of us did so, the world would be a better place indeed.
How might we define usefulness? Broadly, we can think of usefulness as a good, one which helps to make other goods possible. In this sense, it is what philosophers define as an instrumental good—a good that is valuable as a means to an end (as opposed intrinsic goods, which are goods that are valuable for their own sake, such as love or happiness.) It is a kind of tool, which allows us to access higher goods until we reach eudaimonia, or human flourishing, which Aristotle saw as the highest possible good and which readers of The Healthiest Goldfish might recognize as what I have long thought health is fundamentally for: to enable human flourishing, the living of a rich, full life. This aligns well with the fundamental goal of public health, an aspiration to create a world where all can live, all can thrive. It also aligns with the notion of radical incrementalism, where we pursue a vision of a healthier world by taking daily steps, sometimes small ones, even when this contribution is “modest.” The Healthiest Goldfish is itself, at core, an exercise in trying to be useful, to help inform a conversation that does right by the world and by the public health community, towards a pragmatic pursuit of healthier populations.
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