Rob,

Don't be upset because everyone doesn't share your high values. That is their problem, not yours. Looking for the good, is an ideal and a goal, as is reaching for it.

In the Platonic sense, the good is "Agathon" and is what can be realized out of its own potential. The "good" therefore, is of an individual and personal nature and you can only be concerned and control your own actions to seek what is good.

This is the basic difference between liberals and conservatives.

Rush Limbaugh knows what is good for everyone, he has it on the best of authority. He has not only the supreme authority of God, but claims to have a letter from God. The conservative, based upon his source of authority, feels in a position to dictate the good to his fellow citizens and to pass legislation making sure they abide by a conservative sense of good.

The poor liberal has only his authority as an individual to choose the good for him. He is in no position to say what is good for others. The liberal recognizes he has enough trouble being true to himself.

Oh, by the way, I have read Machiavelli---so I don't expect too much from either elected or annointed leadership. I was not personally embarrassed by Bill Clinton and I am not native american. I do admit to a twinge of being embarrassed for him and the sillyness of adults feining such outrage over Clinton as prez getting caught with his pants down. My own reaction was a massive---so what?

You have the advantage over your friend of knowing your grades were yours and I am sure you live with that much more comfortably than he lives with his 4.0.