The Good Place + Ethics

As a Christian, I was uncertain about watching a comedic series on life in hell. It couldn’t be anything but blasphemous, right? Not only is the show hilARious, but 3 seasons in—ironically—it’s actually confirming all I believe about ethics.

The main characters can’t get into heaven, because no matter how many good things they do, no matter how many “good person points” they rack up, the bad things they’ve done—intentional or not—keep them in the red. Throughout the show, we come to learn that no act is without moral consequences.

🛒

Even the purchase of a tomato has ethical implications. Was that tomato picked by underpaid, exploited migrant laborers? Your purchase contributed to their suffering and supported a corrupt system.

💵

Did you altruistically donate over billions of dollars to multiple charities? It means nothing if your underlying motivation was to one-up your sis who has hogged the spotlight since childhood.

👨🏿‍🏫

Did you teach ethics to students overseas? Well, if Teach struggles with decisiveness to the point of failing to commit and support his friends, then the pain he regularly causes them outweighs the moral lessons taught to hundreds of coeds.

Ok, so obviously this is a bit extreme. But it definitely makes you think... 🍅 🎁 📚

The actions we perform daily—sometimes without thinking—have consequences. And whether or not it’s intentional, we are responsible for putting a little more badness or goodness into the world. There’s no way to undo the emotional pain and scars you may have left on the kid you bullied in elementary school or the coworker you belittled or the lover you manipulated. No matter what you do, you can’t atone for all of the pain and damage you’ve caused.

I don’t think this is the direction The Good Place is going, but the show has effectively set itself up with the need for a way to get these terrible people “saved” from “the bad place.” What—or Who—can make up for the bad things we have done and get us to the place where there is no suffering?