it seems that most things just are, with no real effort on either side to make things bad or good
That’s absolutely not what I meant to convey. Most things are the result of a mix of different definitions of “good”, with plenty of effort on all sides toward their needs/wants (aka their definition of “goodness”). This conflict, however, is not zero-sum. There are plenty of behaviors that bring more value to some stakeholders than it costs the others.
School as learning is good for some, school as daycare is good for a different some, school as training to societal conformity good for a different subset. Both because the time can be spent doing all three, and because there’s overlap in some of these subsets, the result is that we get all three AT THE SAME TIME, not that we have to pick exactly one and prevent the rest.
That’s absolutely not what I meant to convey. Most things are the result of a mix of different definitions of “good”, with plenty of effort on all sides toward their needs/wants (aka their definition of “goodness”). This conflict, however, is not zero-sum. There are plenty of behaviors that bring more value to some stakeholders than it costs the others.
School as learning is good for some, school as daycare is good for a different some, school as training to societal conformity good for a different subset. Both because the time can be spent doing all three, and because there’s overlap in some of these subsets, the result is that we get all three AT THE SAME TIME, not that we have to pick exactly one and prevent the rest.
Ah, okay. My bad for misinterpreting you above.