I have not posted anything on my website on Social and Economical things for a long time. This would be my first “society” tagged (in Philosophy category) post in a since August 2021.
Anyway, as I age, I gained a lot of life experiences through interaction with others. One of the social phenomena I came across in Calgary specially after the massive global economic downturn is the self-proclaimed benevolent actors. I saw a large increase in people promoting non-profit and Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs). These organizations deal with social, economic, political, environmental, etc. issues both in this country and aboard. What really strike me the most is that most individuals in these organizations claim to be benevolent. Specially the founding members of these organizations claim they are doing it out of good of their heart. What a load of BS!
There are very few people in this world who would actually do things because they are truly benevolent. It is almost impossible to find benevolent volunteers. Majority of the individuals who claim to be benevolent are actually doing things for their own personal gains. For example, tax breaks from NGOs, writing off expenses via NGOs, selling books about Canada to make a profit or the hardest one to detect is trying to gain power and fame through these activities. I know that some people participated or even created organizations to collect volunteer hours so they can go to Medical School but they went around claiming they did it because they are benevolent volunteers. I know people who wrote books on Canadian history or nature and claim that they did it because they love Canada. Shouldn’t the books they wrote be free or sold at cost if they actually are as benevolent as they claim? By at least selling the book at cost, it will benefit a lot of Canadians who would pick up the book and read. If the book is free, it will goes into the hands of more people and purchasing cost to public libraries would be lower saving taxpayers money. Another big point of contention I have for people working with NGOs is how they pick and choose what topics to scream about. Shouldn’t the NGOs concern about animal welfare speak up even if it means that may create retaliation for their members by large cooperation in Canada? Why would an NGO in Canada concern about animal welfare in Sri Lanka but go completely silent on animal abuse at Calgary Stampede? Is this because they are just targeting weak countries? Why would someone who is successful in Science and Engineering are looking to score political points by trying to win social recognition awards? Why would you want to respect a Medical Doctor if they become a doctor to earn money (Canadian MD earns between 300K to 700K per year)? Do you allow MDs and Engineers to define social ethics? How about medical ethics? Why? Why should an opinion of a “well-known” individual mattes? What makes a homeless poor person’s ethics unfit for the society compared to that of of ethics defined by a prominent Engineer?
No one is benevolent. People often sugar coat their actions as good of the nation or good of the society but in fact, there is always a hidden agenda behind every action we take. If it is not for monitory gain, it could be for political gain or other gains. Majority of people do not do things out of good of their hearts. I never trust anyone claiming to be a good guy. That is my two cents for today!