"Flourishing is not about being in a certain position – it’s about movement with purpose, connectivity, and resilience. Flourishing is active, dynamic, economically secure, but not hierarchical. Flourishing also implies a certain type of self-aware agency that recognizes value in the ups and downs of life, supported by enough economic strength to enable agency...
The goal of flourishing for all both emerges from and promotes cooperative, healthy, and sustainable human traits – the limiting trait when flourishing is the economic and social metric is no longer greed but mutual respect and cooperation... Human dignity - grounded in the inherent autonomy and privacy of all people - is the merit that grounds our right to advance and to flourish. Inalienable dignity is inalienable merit and is marked by respect for our autonomy.
This merit grounds each Canadian's right to flourish: we’re not lobbying to replace a merit-based system of compensation with a non-merit-based system of hand-outs; rather, we aim to replace a non-merit-based system of hand-outs to a lucky few with a merit-based system of respect for the inherent autonomy (dignity) of all."
From Flourishing in Canada: How to Get the Good Life (September 2021)
Photo: Elizabeth Neill, at Bayfront Park, Hamilton Ontario.
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