I wanna be a good person. But sometimes, I just can’t be bothered. It’s too hard. We talk a good talk, but when it comes to it, we sort of run and hide from, you know, real sacrifice. Like would I give my kidney to a stranger? No. Definitely not. I wouldn’t give it to you. But some people do. How are they that good?

Yes, it’s certainly true that there are people out there who are totally self-centered egomaniacs. They’re too absorbed in their own self-interests to pay any attention to anyone else’s. These are the kind of people who will throw all morals and ethics to the wind to advance their own agendas, whether that’s for fame, fortune or whatever else. But — and this is a big but — I’m willing to guess that most people aren’t like that. Or at least, they don’t want to be like that.

Are You a Good Person?

Most people want to be good. The trouble, as Ricky Gervais points out in After Life, is that it’s hard to be truly good. Sure, it could be totally good and altruistic to give away more than half your salary to charity, to lead a life of complete and utter modesty. I don’t know about you, but I’d have a really hard time giving up so many of these lifestyle choices that we make, from our homes to our cars, from our technology to our travel and our food.

“Sometimes, I just can’t be bothered.”

Why Do Good Things at All?

How many of us are willing to make a “real sacrifice” in an effort to make things better for someone else? Indeed, so many of us — again, myself included — can “talk a good talk.” Oh, I’ll recycle more. Maybe I’ll amplify this hashtag on Twitter about a worthy cause, but how much of that is virtue signaling and how much of that is actually being a “good person,” whatever that means?

You might remember a few years ago when I posed the question: Is it possible to be truly selfless? When we donate to charity or help an old granny with her groceries, are we doing these things because they’re good? Or are we doing these things because they make us feel good? Or because we think it will make us look good to others? Are we seeking some sort of moral dessert, or are we legitimately trying to be good people?

Good People and After Life

Perhaps this notion of “moral dessert” could be based on the promise of what may come in the afterlife. Many people may strive to do “good things” so they’ll be welcomed at the pearly gates rather than face pitchforks and brimstone for all eternity. And perhaps that’s one of the more profound discussions we get out of Ricky Gervais and After Life. His character, a cynical and depressed widower, doesn’t believe in an afterlife.

It’s when we move beyond the “what’s in it for me?” line of thinking, even beyond the “what’s in it for us?” mindset, that we can really start to appreciate what it means to be a “good” person doing “good” things. Because we’ll never really know what happens “after life” until we get there ourselves. What we can know is the impact we can have on other people while we’re still here.

After Life is streaming now on Netflix.