Sunday, December 27, 2009

The Kindness of Strangers

This TV program screened today on ABC1 was not made for the peasants.

Giving without expectations and altruism real or not was the theme (I think?).

It was set post-tsunami and looked at some individuals who volunteered to help the victims. Their work was the backdrop to a discussion by some very smart individuals on altruism and the place of altruism in evolution.

One argument was that altruism would not fit true evolution where survival of the fittest would be the norm.

I normally feel good about refurbishing computers and giving them to needy people, but it was suggested that that feeling of being altruistic might well be aimed at getting a ticket to heaven. Indeed one of the volunteers is a Hungarian(?) fellow who said that when he was engaged in these works his heart felt good. He also mentioned Angels!

It made me do a little rethink of the direction I should be heading with my project. 'Giving without expectations' will be my motto from now on.

It was a complex and most interesting program covering many aspects of giving. I will watch the re-run on ABC1 this coming Tuesday 30th at 12.30pm Western Australian time and try and learn more.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I was very moved by the young lady who was using her own money to help victims directly. Do you know who she is and if she is taking donations? (Maybe not still for the tsunami tragedy but maybe for other events..)

Anonymous said...

Sorry John, I did not catch her name and the repeat I thought was to go to air today didn't.

Kevin