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How kindness and generosity impact society

Doing good deeds for people does not always lead to beneficial results. Even if something is done with good intentions, there is always the possibility that it can backfire and actually cause damage. There is a large dependency on what the person doing the deed sees as good. Also, deeds done with good intentions do not always result in wholly good outcomes. Actions can have a positive effect on the situation at hand, but, in turn, have a negative effect on some related situation. There is also the possibility that an action may prevent something better that would have otherwise occurred.

When a person tries to help another, the deed that is done might only appear beneficial to the person trying to be generous. For example, when a samurai is defeated in battle but is not killed, rescuing them may appear to be the humane thing to do. However, the samurai would see dying in combat much more honorable than fleeing. In this, point of view is the key factor in deciding whether or not the action taken is truly good. Giving starving people food from an animal they held sacred would achieve a similar result. If a country wished to ship relief materials, which included beef, into a country highly populated by Hindus, a seemingly good deed could turn disastrous. The Hindus would not only have no use for the meat, but also be offended by the offer because the Hindu people regard the cow as a holy animal. The amount of good that is done is again dictated by point of view. In a milder way, if a person having software issues is using a program that is outdated, a technician might see upgrading to a newer program as the simplest solution. If the user is familiar with and likes the program that he or she is using then that person may see learning how to use a new program as a hassle not worth their time. So, just because one-person views an act as good, does not mean that everyone will see it the same way.

Even if an act of kindness or generosity appears to everyone as being good, that doesn’t mean it will not cause negative effects. A tutor could try to review material with a student the night before a test. If the student tries to remember too much information at one time, it may cause him to be confused or mix up the information during the test. This could greatly hurt the student academically. In a different example, farm products could be sent to a country in crisis without any cost to the receiving country. People across the globe might see the act as feeding the hungry and as a good thing. The farmers of the receiving country might also see the act as good, if they cannot produce enough food to supply the country. However, these farmers, indeed the whole of the country in need, may come to rely on the free food they are receiving. So, something that began as an endeavor to assist a needy country could result in that country’s inability to pull itself free of dependency. Everything that happens has several effects, of which some can be detrimental.

Even deeds that have solely good effects can be bad in unseen ways, or in ways that could not be known until some time after the initial action. This has more to do with chance and fate than point of view or peripheral effects. Suppose someone buys a lottery ticket and wins ten dollars. That person may be content with their good fortune and leave to spend it, leaving the next ticket, a thousand dollar winner, behind for someone else. The girl that settles for a nice guy that she gets along with could miss out on meeting someone with whom she is more compatible with. These are situations that are beyond anyone’s control because the lack of knowledge about what would have happened had a different choice been made, yet are illustrative of the way that a seemingly good choice could be worse than a seemingly less beneficial alternative.

There are many ways in which any apparently good deed can actually be bad, or, at the very least, less favorable than some other choice or action. Differences in people’s ideas of what is good as well as inadvertently causing undesirable effects can make a good intentioned deed go awry. A small ripple effect can easily occur with an act and create negative effects. Unforeseen, and ultimately better, choices may be missed out on because of an instantly gratifying and more obvious choice combined with a lack of knowledge of the future. In any case, there is a chance that any good action can unintentionally cause adverse outcomes.

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