Spoiler Alert. Has spoilers from the show “The Good Place”
Season four of the beloved show “The Good Place” started airing in October. The jaw-dropping series worked to argue philosophical arguments throughout its seasons and this season, it’s getting forking intense. In season one, they argued about the afterlife. Season two was about second chances and redemption. Season three was the flawed afterlife justice system, and the last season was “We’re All Bad People.”
In their attempt to study the justice system that puts people in either The Good Place or The Bad Place, our main characters discover that no one has been selected for The Good Place in 521 years. That’s a forking long time. In their abyss to search for a solution, they thought that The Bad Place demons were tampering with the system of points. Then they realized that demons don’t need to do that because the system judges people for things they “supposedly” don’t know about.
Their first example is buying a tomato. According to the Afterlife Justice System, buying a tomato makes you lose points because you are: unwittingly supporting toxic pesticides, exploiting labor and contributing to global warming. Look at an iPhone for example. The Cobalt and Coltan used in phones are actually a result of enslaved workers by the DR Congo government. Then the extremely cheap workers in China assemble them. The workers were committing suicide because of the unhealthy and horrible working conditions so in order to prevent it, they put nets to catch them when they jump. If it was all humane conditions with minimum wage labour paid, then an iPhone would cost $3000 and to be honest, that’s so expensive that no one would buy it.
Their argument is that we shouldn’t be judged for things we don’t intentionally do. Let’s face it- we have all probably bought stuff or done stuff that’s harmed other people, but should we be judged for that? The Judge in the show, ignorant of life on earth, suggested people should look for places that are moral in their standards.
“Life right now is so complicated that it is impossible for anyone to be good enough for The Good Place” Michael, the reformed demon, replied.
I understand that it’s hard for a lot of people to go out of their way to buy expensive stuff in order to support human rights, and I certainly don’t expect someone who is barely making ends meet to actually buy extra costly things for the sake of a greater cause, but at the end of the day, that still makes us bad people.
With all of the problems of the 21st century, abiding by moral laws is not enough to become a better person. In a world that increases in evil, corruption and violence, without even knowing it, we are contributing to a greater evil. The world is becoming a horrible place that makes it impossible for anyone to be good enough that their good points outweigh their negative.
