As we face a dire future of climate change, mass extinction, political corruption, a worsening culture war, and frightening whispers of a nuclear threat, many people seem unhealthily wed to the idea that simple acts of kindness can turn the tide.
They’re wrong.
Being nice or kind isn’t a bad thing, but it’s certainly distracting, and can easily be faked or kept at a superficial level.
True kindness is what we call compassion: it’s the difference between holding a door for someone and helping someone who’s struggling with bags to take them to their car. It also involves consent: if someone doesn’t want help to their car, you’re not being kind if you insist.
Moreover, people insist that if we simply elevate levels of kindness, the world’s problems will somehow be counteracted. Often, the same people bemoan the lack of trust and neighborliness, mistaking that for the source of our problems. Fact is, violence happens because of power struggles, not lack of neighborliness. Environmental disaster happens because of devastating industrial activity, not because people don’t care. Political corruption happens because the system favors it, not because of…
