The Moral Majesty of Acts of Goodwill- Juniper Publishers
Archaeology & Anthropology- Juniper Publishers
Keywords
Keywords:
Moral; Goodwill; Transportation; Money; Marvelous trip; Hesitating;
Dollar; Society; Proclivity; Gratifying; Self-deception; Tremendous;
Purity; Fitting
Perspective
To begin with a very simple but yet ever so profound
truth: Acts of goodwill are very wide ranging. Jumping into a river in
order to save a person's life is certainly an act of goodwill. But we
just as clearly have an act of goodwill when, for example, a healthy
25-year old passenger on a vehicle of public transportation gives up her
or his seat to either an elderly person or a handicapped person who has
just boarded the vehicle of transportation. Likewise, we clearly have
an act of goodwill with the following situation. Unbeknownst to
individual Alpha, money has fallen out of Alpha's pocket. The person
walking behind Alpha sees what happened and that person (whom we may
call Tarik) essentially has two choices:
i. Pick up the money and keep it or,
ii. Call Alpha’s attention to the fact that money had dropped out of her/his pocket. Needless to say, if Tarik does option,
iii. Then we unquestionably have an act of good will on the part of Tarik.
Needless to say, there can be well-planned acts of
goodwill. A surprise birthday party for a beloved friend would be a case
in point. Taking a marvelous trip with one's own family and inviting a
brilliant child from a poor family who graduated with honors would be
another example. However, an indisputable reality is that acts of
goodwill can also be quite spontaneous precisely because no one had any
reason at all to believe that her or his assistance would be so readily
needed. A case in point would be a person who stops everything that
she/he is doing at home in order to help a perfect stranger whose
slipping on ice resulted in considerable damage to her/his neck. A
simpler example of basic goodwill would be that of person who’s next in
line at the check-out counter of a grocery store seeing that the parents
who are buying food and milk for their infant are $1 short of what the
casher register bill turns out to be. Without hesitating at all, the
person in line who is immediately behind the parents gives $1 to the
cashier. Needless to say, the parents are ever so grateful. We have a
non-trivial act of goodwill although no more than a single dollar was
involved.
As is quite obvious, the very majesty of goodwill is
tied to the fact that a person so behaves not because she/he is
concerned about how others will view her/him, but precisely because the
individual finds so behaving to be ever so morally meaningful and thus
ever so gratifying. Put another way: goodwill plays the role that it
should play in the life of an individual precisely because the exercise
of goodwill on the part of an individual tremendously underwrites the
individual's desire to continue being a person of goodwill precisely
because goodwill at its best is none other than a marvelous form of
moral excellence.
Now a quite important fact is that genuine goodwill
requires genuine self-honesty. That is, genuine goodwill is quite
incompatible with self-deception. The explanation is surely obvious,
namely that the proclivity for self-deception is woefully incompatible
with purity of heart, it being understood that making a mistake does not
in and of itself constitute either a form self-deception or the absence
of purity of heart. However, the point just made is not to be confused
with a different point, namely that a person who has goodwill is one who
is completely honest all individuals. Quite the contrary, one of the
defining features of having genuine goodwill is that one acquires an
extremely clear sense of those with whom one can be honest.
Whether we like it or not, an absolutely immutable
truth is that one cannot be honest with everyone. And, of course, there
is all the difference in the world between a malicious lie and a lie
that deflects being honest. Here is a classic example. Suppose that
Jacque asks Jordon the following question: "Have you ever thought about
having sex with my romantic partner?" Well, as it happens Jordon has had
that thought but he has never ever made even the slightest gesture in
that direction. Never Alas, saying that one had that thought but never
acted upon it tends not go over very well. Not at all and Jordon knows
this. So to Jacques' question "Have you ever thought about having sex
with my romantic partner", Jordon's answer is an unqualified "Absolutely
not". Although Jordon lied, there is nothing at all malicious about his
lie.
There is no denying the fact that justice should be a
fundamental part of each and every society. Alas, the reality is that
there is all the difference in the world between (a) acting justly
because doing so means so very much to one and (b) acting justly simply
as a matter of fitting. It is only when (a) holds for the vast majority
of the citizens of a given society that justice stands as a truly
fundamental part of that very society. And thus, routinely experiencing
goodwill throughout that society is rightly seen by the members of that
society as an ever so fundamental aspect of the very social structure of
a society that is truly just.
Alas, to a degree that far surpasses all other living
creatures, human beings have the capacity for goodwill. Alas, no other
living creature has been an impediment to human beings exhibiting
goodwill like human beings themselves have been. And while there may
have been a time in the history of human beings, when it is was not
reasonable to have tremendous certainty regarding the marvelous benefits
of genuine good will that is no longer the case. Thus, a question that
mightily presents itself is the following: Unlike many centuries ago, it
is now an immutable truth that tremendous cooperation between human
beings would be truly a benefit to human beings throughout the world.
Thus, the question that mightily presents itself is the following: Why
is that it has not become the case that across the globe all human
beings have become the very embodiment of the ideal of goodwill in their
interactions with one another? For so doing would occasion a truly
phenomenal moral majesty in terms of marvelous social interaction. And
as a result, the world would be so much the better.
There is a biblical passage that reads "Jealousy is
as cruel as the grave" (Song of Solomon 8:6). I routinely ask myself
whether the capacity for jealousy on the part of human beings
constitutes a primary impediment to human beings ever so majestically
cooperating with one another. I would very much like for the answer to
be a resounding "Absolutely not". But clearly the evidence regarding the
character of jealousy makes it manifestly clear that jealousy between
individuals is typically a horrific impediment to there being genuine
goodwill between them, and therefore to the individuals truly
cooperating with one another and flourishing together. Thus, the view
that I hold is that as modernity soars ahead, we must find away to
mightily minimize, if not eliminate entirely, the capacity that human
beings have for jealousy. With the elimination of jealousy, we will see
goodwill soar; and the lives of human beings will be so much the better
as a result of the increasing prominence of genuine goodwill.
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