Self Centered Preservation

It seems to me that I circle back to a lot of topics from time to time in one way or another, and this is one that I circle back to quite regularly. We seem to be heading down a road of "survival of the fittest" but in a very unique way. Instead of the people who are smart, charismatic, or even just good being rewarded for what they do, the people who are willing to push as many other people out of their way as possible are the ones who reap the rewards. Why is it this way? Why do we allow things to become this way? Most importantly, why do we think this type of behavior is acceptable?

If we were placed into a survival situation, let's say we're involved in a shipwreck and end up stranded on an island somewhere, what are the odds that everyone would team up to improve the situation? Would this group of survivors band together, combine skill sets and resources, and find a way to improve the lives of everyone who is in this terrible situation? Would we hold back some of our resources and some of our skills, in case things get bad? Would we hold out completely and make a run for it on our own? Would we bully our way into getting the best of the supplies for ourselves and make sure we survived, others be damned?

Unfortunately, while we all like to say that we would be in the first group, struggling together to carve out the best of a bad situation, more likely than not, we'd be faced with a tough decision and see more and more people in the last few categories I mentioned above.

My question is, why? Why, do we continue to push toward self centeredness and self preservation, regardless of the lives affected by our actions? If we all spent as much energy on improving the lives of everyone around us as we did on improving the lives of ourselves, maybe we wouldn't have to improve our own lives so much because they'd already be great.

Just a thought....

The Fear of Helping

It amazes me just how often someone has the opportunity to help others and doesn't. I've been reading a bit on the genocide in Rwanda from 1994 and the thing that really stands out to me is the amazing number of people who were warned about the event, but did nothing. The UN knew about it, the Americans knew about it, the Belgians knew about it, and very very few people made any steps toward stopping it from happening. It got me thinking about why this was the case, and the only thing that makes much sense to me is that they were afraid of making enemies by stepping in.

There are a lot of people who say they are good people, and there are a lot of people who are genuinely good people, but unfortunately, there aren't a lot of people who back that up. There are times when being a good person, and knowing what we need to do isn't enough. There are times when we have to step in and do something. There are times when we have to stand up. Standing up is easy when there are no risks, and there are alot of people who are willing to do that. I'm curious as to how many people out there are willing to stand up when it is hard. When they are going to have to work to set things right. When it is going to cost them something to make the world a better place. When they are going to make some enemies.

My thoughts are a little disjointed on this subject still and I will probably make some revisions to this before it's all said and done, but for now I'm going to leave you with this. Stand up. Sometimes the consequences are worth the rewards, and sometimes the rewards aren't even yours. There may be times when you have to give up something in order to make this screwed up world a better place. And that is when we need to stand up. That is when we make a difference. Don't be afraid to help.