About Good or Nice

Post 1219:

I used to think when people described a person as nice, it was kind of a mixed thing. Like a watered-down crap version of virtue. Or something like that. For instance, I’d rather be known as intrepid or bold or honorable—I’d even take decent—I’d even take good—any of those, over nice.

Then again, there’s a bit of relativity to deal with here. Better nice than asshole. So there’s that.

Still, nice is a weird word, at least the way it’s commonly used today. I think it can be a negative or a positive, depending on the context. Let’s break down some of the properties of nice. Tylerhaswords, after all. Sometimes they’re the four-letter kind.

I refer to the title. Is nice something like good? To me, at first it sounds better than good. Good is a very basic word. For instance, there’s good vs. evil. This is one of the most basic conflicts in life and in story.

So good is elemental. But is it nice? I don’t think so. In fact my mind can conjure a hundred situations right now where being nice can actually allow bad things to flourish. And that’s less than nice. So nice is sort of not nice, given the right circumstances.

But maybe we can do the same thing with good. Can good be not good? Huh, not so sure. It’s right there in the word. Good, by being simple and rudimentary, actually outwits fancier and more complicated words with more expansive connotations.

I think this is why we say our heroes in stories are “the good guys.” They are ultimately concerned with rightness and usually there’s an antagonistic element in a story to help illuminate their situation. If we called our heroes “the nice guys,” that wouldn’t make as much sense. That’s why we don’t do it. Except, of course, in that movie The Nice Guys. Where, actually, they’re not that nice. They’re more good. So that’s ironic. Intentional? I don’t know. Stop asking.

I’m not a confrontational person by nature. I like to speak my mind and just get out. Figure that’s the nice thing. Maybe that’s the prevailing wisdom of our time. Politeness and minding the feelings of others has become the consummate virtue. Nice is, after all, not so bad. Until you find yourself facing something that requires more than hugs and some feels.

In the words of one of history’s greatest philosophers, “Be nice, until it’s time not to be nice.” Something like that. Anyway. Hope that did some good. Have a nice day. Cheers and see you after.