Interview with Grandpa - Essay Example

I interviewed my grandpa a few days ago. The questions I asked him to include; What is good? What is bad/evil? What is right? What is wrong? What is perfection? What is excellence? What is justice? What is peace/harmony? What are the ends/goals/objectives of existence? What are the means to attain them? What is family? What is community? What is society? What is culture? How do we learn culture? What is social interaction? What is a relationship? What is trade? What is economics? What is power? What is politics? This paper offers a reflection upon that interview.
My grandpa gave these answers to the aforementioned questions; Good is what the religion declares good. Bad is what the religion declares bad. Religion is the fundamental source of evaluation of matters and their categorization as good or bad. Likewise, right is what religion allows and wrong is what religion disallows. In case one is not able to retrieve firm decision of the religion upon a matter, one should use common sense to decide whether an action is right or wrong. Perfection means zero mistakes. Excellence is the level closest to perfection, but not perfection. Justice is what makes a system stable and sustainable. Peace/harmony is a lack of conflict. Compromise and patience are required to achieve peace/harmony. The end/goal/objective of existence is worshipping one God and living the life according to His instructions. This objective can be achieved by studying and adjusting the ways in accordance with the instructions in the Holy book and following the instructions and actions of the Prophet. Family is the basic social unit. Family is a system wherein people are related to one another and have certain rights and responsibilities towards one another as dictated by the religion. A community is any group of people that have some kind of shared interest. Society is the conglomerate of communities. Different communities join together to form a society. Culture is a conglomerate of the social norms, values, trends, and traditions that are formed jointly by history, religion, and geography. We learn the culture of our own society by living and growing up in it. We learn about other cultures through literature and media. Social interaction is the dealing of individuals with one another. A relationship is an interaction guided by the rights and responsibilities of the related parties towards each other.