For every person seeking o give aid to his fellow man, there is another looking to profit from their charity.
I generally feel proud whenever a huge tragedy, like the earthquakes in Japan, strikes the world. People from different walks of life, cultures, and countries come together to rally to the aid of those who need it. It is not because they are forced to by some tyrant, or because they are answering the heed of some deep seeded biological imperative. It’s quite the opposite, actually. Biologically we are hardwired to ensure the continuation of our genetic line, and hardship falling on a rival “tribe” so to speak would thin out the competition. It’s a violation of the obvious genetic imperative that charity and generosity exist at all. These things to me are proof of a higher ideal of morality for us as people to strive to achieve and surpass.
Unfortunately, it is a moral directive that fights against our baseline biological drives of self preservation. In the acts of kindness, charity and generosity, we create an atmosphere that allows those of us that lack the discipline to follow a higher calling to easily succumb to their drive to collect everything they need. Charity, pure and simple as it is, can easily be corrupted and twisted into greed.
Less than a week after the Earth shook, sending massive waves out across the nation of Japan, in a time when it is still possible for a MOX reactor to explode and take out 2/3 of the island of Japan, when emergency workers are dieing of radiation poisoning to keep that reactor from blowing, people have already begun to feed on the universal charity, hope, and good will the world is sending Japan’s way. Scammers across the US have begun pretending to collect money for various “disaster relief” funds. When these scavengers feed off of the good intentions of other people, it uses it all up, and leaves us all a little more hollow inside, a little less willing to give and be fulled again.
How do we continue to give once we’ve become jaded and disheartened? It isn’t easy, but we have to. If we do not, then we are giving control of ourselves to the lowest scum of society, and we loose a little bit more of ourselves, our hearts, and our honor. What we can do, is continue to give what we can, and place our hope and faith in another virtue, Justice. If the cops don’t get them, sooner or later, Kharma will.