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Social Agathism

Social Agathism is a fresh attempt to solve the age-old question of how to create a good society which gives the maximum chance to people to flourish and have good lives.

Kreia are people's 'Needs'. The term Kreia encompasses the basic needs of physical life such as air, food, drink and shelter. It also includes emotional, psychological and social needs. Further anything that would be of a benefit to a person, to help them grow, to give them a better life, is part of their Kreia even if they could strictly speaking manage to get along without it.

Kresis means 'being useful' or 'meeting needs'. Kresis is the active activity that satisfies the Kreia of people.

Thalia is flourishing. The term Thalia applies firstly to individuals if they are having a good life. However the term Thalia can also apply to a society as a whole. This because a person can only flourish in a society set up so that everybody is interacting with each other in productive ways - both meeting the needs of others and having their own needs met.

Pantothalia means 'the flourishing of all' or 'the common flourishing'.

Social Agathists aren't dogmatic about what kind of social order is best to achieve Pantothalia.
However as a general rule we believe that Pantothalia only comes about when it is the active goal of people who have the right motivation, knowledge and capability to make a success of it, and that these people form an effective alliance to overpower those who just wish to abuse other people.

Some believe that most people are not capable of being good leaders and the best approach is to bring into being a small class of people that are specially educated for leadership roles to be a new benevolent aristocracy. Others believe there is scope for a wider movement towards social responsibility and take a more democratic approach.

Thus the two mechanisms of Social Agathism are:
1. To support the development of people to become better leaders in society - so they have the greatest desire to help, the best understanding of the issues and the necessary capabilities and strengths to be successful.
2. Given that we can expect no equality in people's suitability to be social leaders, we need to judge each person's capabilities for the roles available and put the best people into the most influential positions.

April 2024 (amended Nov 24 and Mar25)