A Living Plan for a Fruitful Life

I believe that this life is a gift worth our love and respect. It is an opportunity to find a meaning for one’s self and then strive to reach the desired/set goals. But the question is how do we define the meaning and what goals is that meaning going to manifest? There is no simple answer to this question as there have been many attempts at defining and proposing the meaning of life and this quest has been the cause of a lot of bloodshed in the form of humans fighting one another to prove that the meaning that have found is the only correct meaning of life and others should whole heartedly follow and respect that meaning. The driving force behind religions have been the meaning of life and we are well aware that it has been the cause of endless wars over the history. If I had to look critically at religions, I would say that Buddhism has made one of the most objective attempt at defining meaning which is to allow its followers to meditate and introspect themselves to define their life meaning. This does not call for setting a dogma that would cause one person to force others to follow him or her. This has the flexibility for every person to have their own meaning of life.

After I have been through this course, I have realized that we, as human species need to understand the meaning of common good and its relation with human rights. Once we have done that, the meaning of life that we define for ourselves would not have negative repercussions for others. It will help us devise a life plan that is economically sustainable, civilly engaged and meaningful. For this assignment, I have to devise a plan for living. I have brainstormed my life plan in accordance to the course content and what I understood from it. Following are the basic principles that drive my living plan.

Umbrella of Human Rights and Common Good

I believe that it is pertinent to all human beings to be well aware of the common good that exists (partly). I personally believe in the notion put forward by the Eternal Law that states that it is inbuilt in human nature to strive for good in ourselves and the world. Human beings are not born bad. I personally have a wish to have a fruitful life and that is not at the cost of the comforts of the lives of others. But I have situations that limit the fulfilment of achieving a fruitful and innocent life. For example, I live in a big city that has been built over a previous natural habitat. I have to travel in a car that has negative environmental implications and so on. This does limit my capability to look at the world in a manner that would lead to achieve a common or partial common good. So what can I do?

I believe that I have to work with others around me to reduce our wastes, avoid unnecessary car travels and use a bicycle. Be good to environment by living a life on energy efficient resources. These are small steps but if we do it on a universal level, it can really make a difference and can contribute to the achievement of common good. As Kant has state that a person must act in a manner such that his/her actions are justified by the virtue of the universal law. In my life, I would think in my own capacity about my actions and the universality of them being good or bad.

The second question is of human rights. Over here I would not define human rights. I would simply say that I would try my best to respect the human rights of the others as agreed upon by the charter of the United Nations and try to protect them at any cost in my life. I would respect the freedom of speech of others and would work in my capacity so that every human being gets his/her rights to quality education, living, food etc. fulfilled. I will be against discrimination on gender, ethnic or religious basis. This is the only way forward for me an all others around me I believe.

Hunger for power and the social structure

Different theories about Power, politics, social classes and gender provided me an opportunities to look deep into the causes of evils in the world. I have come up to a conclusion that is more in line to what Carl Marx had to say. Carl Marx defined classes to be based on accessed to the financial assets. So the people who own corporations own the money and unfortunately own the world. There is no denial that humans have been discriminated due to the color of their skin or due to their religion or gender, but I believe that for my future life, I would need to understand how the so called upper class that has control of the world resources controls the world and manipulates the world conditions in their financial favors. We can clearly see that these big corporations have posed a face that gives an impression that they are against any kind of gender or racial discrimination but the reality is that there does exists a class in each country who want to control the power, politics and resources of that country with the help of their money. From a big picture view, all the upper class people of the world are partners in controlling the world. I would need to be careful in not becoming a part of such organizations that are abusing their employs and the world resources. In fact I should work against these organizations in a democratic manner.

Positioning Strategy

When I look at myself in my present status, I do not have supper qualities that would help me shape my future in accordance with the principals of common good and human rights. But what I have is a passion to help my fellow human beings and enable them to achieve their rights. I would try to become a part of a non-profit organization and/or establish my own non-profit organization that can help create awareness. I would raise my voice and let people about what their rights are and how can they win legal battles against the “class” that discriminates them and the whole of the society. I would work on projects that are structured to work towards the achievement of basic human rights.

My competitive Advantages

I believe that as a person this course has helped me develop to be a better human being by understanding the basic concepts of being a human and understanding other human beings. I have planned to get a degree in the field of management. This will help me enhance my leadership capacity and provide me with an opportunity to learn more about effectively communicating with other people. I have a healthy financial support from my family which is unfortunately not available to many. Being free of financing my studies helps me focus on my future and fund my studies. I am energetic and am willing to help others.

Key constituencies

My key constituencies are the under privileged people of my country. I know that I cannot change the world but I will try to bring positive change in the lives of some back in my home country. In the next section I would devise a specific plan to serve the common good.

Plan to serve the common good

I plan to get a degree in the field of management. I have searched the internet and I believe that a degree in public administration can be very useful to learn the specifics of dealing with people at different levels. During my studies, I would try to find an internship at a social welfare organization on national or international level. This will provide me with a firsthand experience to learn to be a part of social welfare projects. After I have finished my studies, I would try my luck at the USAID, UNHCR or any other reputed organization to that I can learn to manage the needs of people on a global scale. These organization have always many multinational projects helping people and advocating human rights. Also working for these organizations will introduce me to generating and expending funds related to projects. After an experience of 3 to 4 years at a reputed organization, I would love to establish an NGO at my home town. What I can see from know is that I will be working at advocating education for children in the under privileged segments of my home town. Children are the future of any society. I have observed that due to the lack of education, there have been an increase in crimes in my country. I cannot comment on specifics of my future NGO project as to how large it would be or how would it interact with under privileged people as I do not have the necessary training and experience yet, but I am sure that I will succeed as I believe in the common good and I wish it to prevail in the world.

Conclusion

I know that it is easy said that done to talk about achieving the goals of human rights and common good. Defining the meaning of life is not an easy task. And especially when you are attempting to do it yourself. But I believe that if my life is governed by the principles of common good and human rights, I would travel in the same direction and one day achieve the goals that were actually meant for me. I would be helpful and empathetic to others and accept the guidance of others more learned and educated than me.