Wholesomeness:

Wholesomeness is a centrally important concept in my life and value system. Unfortunately, within the context of American society, the word wholesome sometimes carries connotations of conservative or traditional values that I do not wish to communicate. I use the word more in accordance with its literal definition:

Something is wholesome if and only if it is beneficial to all those involved.

Wholesomeness is closely related to the question of whether or not "the end justifies the means". Whether or not you would answer that question with a "yes" or "no", it is important to emphasize that something is wholesome if and only if it both achieves good ends and has a good means of achieving them.

Wholesome food:

Wholesome food is food that tastes good and contributes to a healthy diet. I do believe that food needs to taste good in order to bear the label wholesome; "healthy" food that tastes bad creates an unwholesome dichotomy between "healthy" and "tasty"; the wholesome approach is to bring taste and health into harmony with each other. You can read more of my views on food on my page on diet.

Wholesome politics:

Wholesome politics are based on cooperation, respect, clear thinking, integrity, and a genuine desire to advance the common interests of all people. Personal attacks, negative campaigning, political corruption, and demonization of groups of people all move political debate and dialogue out of the realm of wholesomeness. One ongoing struggle in America is that people who themselves value wholesomeness and live in the most wholesome manner are often alienated from the political process. I would encourage these people to ramp up their participation in politics to whatever degree they can happily handle. Voicing respectful and rational viewpoints is very important when the political dialogue is at its most vicious. For more of my views on politics you can check out my official political platform.

Wholesome business:

I find wholesomeness to be extraordinarily important in business. Businesses can become unwholesome in a number of different ways. An outright dishonest business can scam their customers. Some businesses push costs off to society, such as by polluting the environment or gaming subsidies and tax breaks.

I think there are multiple ways to keep business wholesome. One is information and transparency: the more easily-available information is about businesses, the harder it is for them to carry out unwholesome activties without facing scrutiny from society, which can take the form of boycotts or changes to the laws to set up better incentives or eliminate loopholes the business is utilizing.

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